And Then There Were None
by solitaireclay07
Summary: Sequel to KMTTML. I don't know what's going on, I don't know what the war is all about, all I know is that my mom's old friends weren't expecting me to show up at their door. And now I'm learning about the past...the first war...my parents...and Harry's.
1. Fight

And this is the sequel to Kissed Me Till the Morning Light.

There's a couple things you might need to know.

First, this chapter is supposed to be confusing. The premise of this whole story will be to figure out what happened.

This takes place during Harry's 5th year. But Harry and everyone else won't have such a big role. Most of the story will be flashbacks.

The flashbacks include Lily/James. That makes it a Lily/James story and I'm quite excited that I get to write another one.

It's also a bit different than KMTTML. You'll see that it's more action. And it's sort of a mystery. If you want, you can even guess what's happening in your review...

But for now, enjoy this chapter.

* * *

It was dusk; a dusty dark red seeping over the horizon. The trees outside rustled softly as the wind blew, making the only sound in the quiet. 

I glanced out the closed door, watching, waiting. My mother's instructions were to stay here and watch out the door. I wasn't sure what I was watching for but I knew it was important. Nervously, I fingered my wand in my back pocket, just in case.

Questions swarmed through my mind. Why were we here? Why did we have to hide? Why did we have to be so secretive?

I pressed against the wall, wondering what to do next. Across from me in the mirror, I saw a confused girl with dark thick hair and amber eyes staring back at me. I brushed a piece of my hair out of my face, realizing why I was often told that I looked like my mother.

My mother. Where was she?

"Mom?" I called, looking behind me in the seemingly deserted room.

I turned at the sound of footsteps, seeing my mother coming from the other room. "Adrienne," she said softly, speaking in hurried harsh whispers, "I need you to promise me something." I nodded in confusion, as she placed a folded piece of parchment in my hand. "If something happens, you know what I mean,I need you to read what is in here. Just read it and do what it tells you. No questions, just promise me."

I stared up at my mother's tired face. Times like this made me remember what she had told me before we had left America. She had kept our life,_ her_ life, a secret for fifteen years. Right before we left she told me some of her story; the parts that I had bugged her about for the last five years. But now that I was in the middle of it, I didn't know if I wanted to stay there. "I promise," I whispered back.

"You ready?" she asked, stepping in front of me, ready to open the door.

Having lead a sheltered life, I couldn't see the danger. She had warned me about something, a war, perhaps. Warned me about...what was his name? Oh, yeah, Voldemort. The ever increasing threat. She had gone through this once before. In response to her question, I nodded.

"Keep watch," she warned me before opening the door and stepping out.

A sudden thought occurred to me if I weren't so scared about a little thing like apparation we wouldn't be in this situation. Mother could have just apparated us there. But, at least this way, we could keep watch on the streets this way. Know what was happening...

_The air was thick in the room, making it difficult for anyone to breathe. No one dared to look at each other; instead, they looked at the ground, the table, the wall, anywhere to not show their emotion to each other. _

_Lily breathed in deeply, silent tears streaming down her face. James held her close, arms wrapped tightly around her, comforting her._

_Remus glanced up for a second, seeing the two comfort each other. He shivered involuntarily and wondered how they would ever be able live life the same anymore._

_"Two of us are absent today," Dumbledore said at the front of the room, breaking the silence._

_Immediately at the end of his sentence, the door behind him opened with a slam, and in hurried Sirius Black, still reveling in his disbelieving shock. He sank down in the first chair he found, refusing to meet anyone's eyes._

_"One of us," Dumbledore corrected in soft tones, respectful of the situation._

_Lily glanced up at Dumbledore, eyes shining with tears. "She told me to tell you that she's staying home sick today," she told him, voice wavering._

_Dumbledore nodded and started to speak. "We lost someone important to all of us last night," he announced, "But she would have wanted us to keep going. This Order is strong. All of us here defied him once. In memory of those who we've lost, we need to keep practicing. Keep fighting..."_

_Lily sniffed softly. "But he has killed, Professor, he's-"_

_"That's exactly why we're fighting. We need to stop him," Dumbledore explained._

_Remus was listening to every word Dumbledore said, making mental notes with every word he said. James thought about each person they had lost and now everything else they had to deal with. Peter was staring at the ground, a blank expression on his face. Sirius kept his eyes fixated on a spot on the table, not even listening to Dumbledore's speech; one thing going through his mind._

_He was going to kill Voldemort...personally._

"Where are we going?" I asked, shivering from the cold. It was an August night, but for some reason, it was chilly this night.

"Away," was the only response I received.

"I want to know," I complained about her short answer.

My mother sighed, taking out her wand. It was a wonder she even remembered. "We're going to find some people. But the war is making it really difficult."

I fingered my wand in my pocket again. "People you know?"

"You could say that," my mother answered.

I jumped as I heard something make a cracking sound behind me. Whipping around, I faced whatever it was. Nothing. "Mum, I heard something," I told her loudly.

"You're just being jumpy, Adrienne."

I frowned, staring out at the horizon and the deserted road. I turned back around, sighing because my mother was right.

We continued walking down the winding trail. The road took a sharp curve, sneaking its way through a thick forest. "Strange..." I heard my mother muttered and shrugged as if she didn't say anything at all.

I was going to ask what was strange but I stopped myself, deciding to leave questions for later. I stepped into place next to her and we continued down the trail. It was silent, an uncomfortable silence that made me twitch and want to yell just to hear something.

My mother stopped in the middle of the forest, looking around at the scenery. Suddenly, she turned around, kicking the stone on the side of the road. To my surprise, her foot went right through it, as if it were a hologram or something.

She quickly caught my gaze and said a word that sent chills up and down my spine.

"Run."

As soon as the word left her mouth, the forest began to fade away, from the tops of the trees to the roots, slipping away into darkness. I spun around quickly, looking at each thing as it dissolved into the dark. I turned and came face to face with a dark hooded person.

My mother's command flickered across my mind in an instant and I immediately set one foot ahead to run, to scream, to get away. A strong hand grabbed my arm before I could run, pulling me, hurting me with its grasp.

I opened my mouth to scream but nothing came out. "Master..." the hooded figure yelled, catching me off guard.

I couldn't see what was going on behind me. My mother was to the side, jaw set, staring at whatever was coming up behind me.

Was this the danger?

Was this...Voldemort?

"Ah, I remember you." I let out a choked gasp at the _voice_. No, it wasn't even a voice. A breathy whisper of a voice. A hiss. "You are the one that got away all those years ago. _Aliquantus veneficus._" I saw something vivid blue fly over my head, and I let out a shocked high-pitched scream as the spell hit my mother, making her rise up into the air, immobilized.

Her wand was left on the ground.

"MOM!" I screamed.

My mother kept her stone cold gaze on whatever cast the spell. Not whatever. It was him. Even though I couldn't see him and I couldn't know for sure, I still knew. It was..._Voldemort_.

She still didn't say anything. She didn't try to scream, yell, or do anything. She just...stared.

I heard a cold chuckle. "It's been around fifteen years, has it not? One of the those days I remember so well. You thought you had defeated me. You thought everything would be okay, and then, they lost you. At least that's what your friends thought. But you got away, didn't you? Away from my Death Eater. I don't know how, don't want to know, but you did. And I knew one day I'd be able to kill you for real. And here we are." He spoke slowly, stopping after each sentence.

My mother continued her cold stare, not saying a word. Not even fear flickered in her eyes.

"And, surprise. You were carrying a child. I suppose none of your..._friends_ knew that."

I moved my arm a little and the grip on it tightened "Don't move girl," my captor hissed.

"I don't like it when people defy me," Voldemort continued, "I don't like it when they believe they have won. And I don't like you." He stopped, paused, for something. "And I don't like your daughter."

"Leave her alone."

I blinked in surprise that she said something. My heart hammered as the silence continued.

"She is an obstacle. You are an obstacle. Obstacles on my way to what I really want. To kill Harry Potter."

My mother frowned. "You won't be able to. His mother _died_ for him and because of her sacrifice-"

Another chuckle. "I know all about that. I solved that problem already." Pause. "Now, I don't have time for this."

"Don't!" I yelled, jabbing the hooded figure in the gut, successfully pulling away from him. I whirled around to face my fear.

Instead of flinching at his face, his horrible face, I showed no emotion, showing myself and everyone that I could do this. I could... Oh god, his _eyes_...were...staring...mercilessly.

"Adrienne, get out of here!" my mother yelled from behind me.

I shook my head, stepping back, keeping my stare on..._him._ "Child, you will move." He flicked his wand and my mother fell to the ground, landing with a thud. I cringed and took a step forward to help her but noticed him. He was opening his mouth to say another spell.

Spell. Killing curse. Death...

What the hell was I doing?!

"Avada kedavra." In a rash decision, I quickly fell to the ground, ducking the spell. A jet of green flew across my head and disappeared out of sight.

"ADRIENNE! GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!" My mother had an urgency and an anxiousness to her voice that I had never heard before.

I was going to die.

She was going to die.

I stumbled as I tried to run away.

"Don't worry about me!" I heard behind me. Except I had to worry. I was worrying...

Voldemort chuckled again. "Oh, this is priceless. Get her." All of the hooded figures started to run toward me, arms outstretched with their wands ready.

Without even thinking, I responded. "_Stupefy_!" I cast the same spell over my shoulder as I ran, out of there, out of danger.

Yards away, I turned around, and screamed, "MOM!"

She looked at me, softly, as if to say 'I love you'. "Go," she mouthed, and I turned away to hear the two words no one ever wanted to hear.

I couldn't think. Couldn't breathe. All I knew was that I had to keep running. Tears blurred my vision as I ran, just ran, and ran and ran...

I spent the entire night awake, watching every movement in the darkness. Huddled in a corner of the house that we were staying at before we left, I watched everything. Listened through the silence. Felt the cold.

I shivered, putting my hands in my pockets. My left hand wrapped around something that crinkled and I brought it out to see, by the dim dawn light, the parchment I was given the day before.

_If something happens_. She had known something was going to happen to her. She had made me promise I would follow whatever was on this paper. Slowly, I unfolded the parchment and read the few words on the page.

"Number twelve, Grimmauld Place. London."

* * *

Number eleven...Number thirteen... 

I stared at the two houses. There was nothing in between.

With a frown, I looked again.

Number eleven, Grimmauld Place.

Next house.

Number thirteen, Grimmauld Place.

Maybe the address written on the parchment was wrong. And if it was, where was I to go? I had no one, I had nothing. I only had this address. It was my lifeline.

Where was Number Twelve Grimmauld Place? Where?

I scuffed my toe of the shoe on the ground, looking down briefly to see the mark I had made. How come number twelve didn't exist?

I absentmindedly looked up and was startled when I was greeted with the presence of an old house that wasn't there before; a house proudly declaring to be number twelve.

Should have known there would be some magic involved.

I found myself on the worn steps, not even remembering how I got there. 'Okay, Adrienne, you can do this.' I stared at the black door, staring at its peculiar shape and form. Just knock. You need to do this. You have to do this.

I took the cold steel of the serpent door knocker in my hand and lifted up. And with an exhale of breath, I brought it down, making three short taps.

Silence.

Maybe no one was home. Maybe it was abandoned now.

Might as well give it another try. I tapped again three times. This time I heard a slight scuffle and then upcoming footsteps.

I tried to take calming breaths to ease my speeding heartbeat as the footsteps came to a stop, leaving me in silence. Was there a peep hole that they were looking at me through? Finally, the door creaked open revealing a man with sandy graying hair. He stopped right before the threshold and stared at me.

I stared back nervously. I stepped forward confidently, clearing my throat and offering my hand. "Hi. I'm Adrienne Hatcher."

"Oh god," was the only thing that escaped his mouth.

* * *

There's a banner for this story on my profile. 

Review if you want to know what happens. And I know you do.


	2. Runaway

This chapter wasn't edited by my friend who wants to edit it...so...it may be reposted. I don't know. But I wanted to post this chapter this weekend.

Italics flashbacks.

This may clear up some of the confusion.

More Lily/James will be in the later chapters. Right now, I'm explaining things.

The spells were created by me being lazy and not wanted to look up actual ones. At the beginning, they were things like "SkylarAstinisprettycool". But Voldemort wouldn't say things like that. Haha.

And I hope some of you like this chapter...(I'm going to get some interesting reviews, I think...)

* * *

I felt sick. My heart beat so fast that it pounded in my chest, in my throat, in my head.

The man in front of me looked at me in pure surprise. "Here, come inside," he finally said, moving aside for me to walk through the doorway, "We'll finish this conversation in here."

I brushed past him, glancing around at everything in the house. It was old, dirty, and dusty. It seemed as if no one had lived here for a long time.

I brought my attention back onto the man that let me inside. He looked like he had been through a lot; his tired face showed everything, his pain, his emotion, his weaknesses.

He looked at me almost cautiously. "Your name is...Adrienne Hatcher?" he asked hesitantly. I nodded. "I'm Remus Lupin," he introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you," I said politely.

There was an uncomfortable pause and I knew what would be on his mind. "And you're...Ellyn's daughter?"

I expected him to ask this. "Yes," I responded, as we entered one of the back rooms of the house. He motioned to the couch and I sat on the far end.

He scooted up a chair across from me and sat down. "Who's-"

"I don't know," I interrupted, knowing what he was going to ask. I was waiting for it. "She never told me."

Remus leaned forward and didn't say a word. He watched me as if he was...analyzing me or something. I stared back nervously and wrung my hands in my lap. "Excuse me," I said softly, breaking the silence. His eyes flickered back to mine, and I continued, "Um, where am I?"

He looked a bit surprised that I didn't know where I was. "You're at number 12, Grimmauld Place. Home of the Order of the Phoenix."

"Remus Lupin!" Another voice came out of nowhere. I looked up to see a woman standing in the doorframe, a frown on her face. She stepped forward into the room, crossing over to us, arms crossed in a defensive pose. "How _dare_ you tell...about...who-" She faltered, staring at me as if she was just seeing me for the first time. "Who are you?"

Remus looked up, and then said, "Kady, this is Adrienne Hatcher."

The woman, Kady, looked at me in pure surprise. "What?"

She looked back to Remus for answers, but instead, I decided to answer her question. "I'm Ellyn's daughter."

I saw the confusion in her eyes. It was the same look Remus was giving me. Kady crossed over and sat on the opposite side of the couch, facing me. "How is that possible?" she asked me, quietly.

I gave her a confused look. "How is...what possible?"

"Adrienne-" Remus said, getting my attention, "How old are you?"

Without hesitation, I answered, "Fourteen. Though I'll be turning fifteen next month."

Remus and Kady exchanged glances, taking a moment to silently have a conversation with just their glances. Then they turned back to me, and once again, I felt like I was under a microscope, being analyzed. "Your mother died before you were born," Remus finally said.

"I know," I said, nodding.

"Then, how?" Kady breathed, leaning forward.

_"The Meadows-" panted an out-of-breath Remus Lupin._

_There were only a few members of the Order in the room, but they didn't even waste time to question. They grabbed their things and apparated away before Remus got his breath back. Remus followed quickly, finding Lily and James outside the house_

_"How do you know?" James immediately asked, pulling on his coat. It had only been a month after the wedding -- was there really an attack this soon?_

_"Just trust me," Remus answered, as the members in front of them opened the door with a spell. They filed in, wands ready, and guards up._

_"Where's everyone else?" Lily turned to Remus for answers._

_Remus shook his head. "It's still early. Maybe they're not up yet."_

_"How come no one contacted them?" _

_A loud explosion from behind startled them, making them whip around, wands at the ready. A couple people ran past them, shouting things like "Wands ready!" and "They're out there!". Lily, James, and Remus looked at each other before rushing along the hallway._

_As they passed by a dark open room, they were pulled inside. _

_Lily immediately brandished her wand, coming in contact with a stranger's throat. "God, woman, don't kill me," the person exclaimed. _

_"Lumos," Remus said, filling the room with some light._

_Sirius stood there awkwardly, wand at his throat while Ellyn stood to the side, just out of danger's way. _

_"Where have you been?" James questioned, as Lily lowered her wand._

_Sirius rolled his eyes. "If somebody actually tried to tell us there was an attack, we would have been here already."_

_"We need to get going. We can't just wait here and do nothing," Ellyn suddenly proclaimed, brushing past the group and leaving into the hallway._

_"What's up with her?" James asked, watching her leave._

_It was as if it was a rhetorical question; no one answered. The group looked at each other again before following her. On the way into the battle, they met up with Kady and Peter, who both looked tired._

_"We just came to find you-" Kady started to say, breathing heavily, "It's chaos in there. I think-I think we might have lost some people. I don't know..." she babbled, clearly shook up._

_Peter nodded. "We need to get in there now."_

_Spells immediately were cast as they got into range of the attack. They could see members of the Order throwing spells at people in dark hoods, and the dark-hooded people, Death Eaters, casting them in return. _

_In the midst of the chaos, the group got separated, each of them spread out, fighting their own fight._

_James found Lily in the corner of the room, stunning a Death Eater coming toward her. She threw him a glance as he ran up, throwing a spell at another Death Eater coming up. "Where's Voldemort?" he asked her quickly._

_She looked up at him, shocked. "Voldemort? He's here?"_

_James held out his wand, watching for anyone trying to attack them. "Yes. He personally came here to...kill Dorcas."_

_Lily took a deep breath, processing the information. "I don't know. I haven't seen anything but these Death Eaters."_

_"Cruc-"_

_"Stupefy!" James cut off the attacker, sending him falling to the floor._

_Remus finally made his way over to them, a long cut on the side of his face bleeding profusely. "Have you guys seen Ellyn?" _

_James and Lily looked at him, confused. "Why?" Lily asked, immediately regretting asking._

_"We can't find her."_

_Ellyn watched the fight from an obscure corner. She had been standing there since the beginning, and no one had tried to come up and attack her yet. It was unnerving, actually, watching everything happening and knowing that at any time she could be thrown into all that._

_"Congelo Imperium."_

_With a shout of surprise, Ellyn found herself frozen in place. "Hello, girl," she heard from her left. She couldn't look, she couldn't move to see who it was, but she knew._

_"Voldemort," she muttered with clenched teeth._

_He stepped in front of her, wand out, keeping the spell on her. "I thought I'd only have the chance to kill that Meadows girl today," he chuckled, "And now I have you."_

_Ellyn had her wand and she knew if she could just move a bit, she could hit him with a spell. Where were the others?_

_"You were the one who went on that assignment for Dumbledore." _

_Ellyn didn't ask how he knew about it, she just watched, thinking that she just needed to live, to get through this, to be saved..._

_"It'll be a pleasure killing you today-" Ellyn exhaled sharply, knowing this was it, this was her last moment. "Avada k-"_

_"Explico!"_

_The spell was released on Ellyn as soon as Voldemort was hit. Sirius stood behind him, wand out, staring coldly at where Voldemort was previously standing. Behind him, the rest of the group stood, wands ready. Voldemort was kneeling on the ground and began to chuckle._

_"A little spell like that won't work," Voldemort said, rising up once again. _

_But Ellyn had control of her wand again. "Confuto maneo!"_

_The spell threw Voldemort off balance for a second and Ellyn used the time to rejoin the group. Lily immediately caught Ellyn in a hug, but made it short, turning back around to face Voldemort._

_"Expelliarmus," a voice came out of nowhere._

_Ellyn gasped as a Death Eater grabbed her wand in one hand, and caught her with the other. "Let...go...of...me..." she growled, stepping on his foot as hard as she could._

_The Death Eater yelped and jumped back, dropping Ellyn's wand, letting it roll the opposite way. The others kept their attention on Voldemort, holding out their wands, ready while Ellyn battled her own attacker._

_But Voldemort did nothing. He just stared at them, a merciless smile crossing his face._

_Sirius frowned. This was unlike Voldemort. What was he up to? As the thoughts continued to cross his mind, something light hit his shoe. He looked down to see a wand, and then looked up quickly to find who didn't have one._

_"El!" Sirius shouted over the noise, catching her attention. He threw the wand without thinking, hoping it would land somewhere near her. It thankfully landed on the floor next to her, and she quickly kneeled down to take it._

_The rest watched as Voldemort stood there, not attacking. Then he finally spoke, "Do you really think you all can defeat me? Because, remember, I have my own defenses..."_

_Suddenly, everyone was grabbed by surrounding Death Eaters. The reason why Voldemort was stalling suddenly became clear; to give his Death Eaters time to group around them. Immediately, everyone responded, and the spells were thrown across the room. _

_"Lily!" James shouted, noticing her across the room, wand pointed dangerously at her chest._

_Lily stepped backward, saying her own spell, causing the Death Eater to fall to the ground and start turn weird colors._

_Sirius and Kady kept close together, fighting off four of the Death Eaters in their way. Remus was on the other side, while Peter watched on nervously._

_"Missing someone, aren't we?" Voldemort said calmly over the ruckus._

_Lily and James looked up at the same time and scanned the room. "Ellyn's gone again," James said worryingly._

_"I was growing tired of this fight," Voldemort explained, "So, I just told my Death Eater to finish it and kill her off. And I'll deal with the rest of you."_

_Sirius's eyes widened. "What?" _

_Voldemort's lips curved into a sinister smile. "And..." He paused his speech to listen. Outside, in another room, the two words that caused so much pain and suffering could be heard. Lily's breath hitched in her throat as James flinched. Remus let out a slow breath, Peter frowned, and Kady bit her lip, shaking her head slowly. Sirius just stared at Voldemort, slowly clenching his hands into fists._

_"Now, avada-"_

* * *

_Ellyn stared down at the Death Eater, who was in a full body bind on the ground. Holding onto her wand like it were her lifeline, she checked her surroundings. _

_She had almost died. The Death Eater had tried to attack her with the killing curse, but she had gotten away from his grasp. He didn't even hit her with the curse. Before he knew what was happening, she had attacked him back, and here she was, staring down at him._

_Voldemort would be after her if she went back. He would be after her, her friends, her-_

_Breathing shallow, she realized. She couldn't go back. Glancing up at the house, she took a deep breath, to try to clear her mind. She had to protect them. _

_She couldn't be responsible for their deaths. She had to save them; save everyone. She would leave, leave and not come back. She would change her name, change her identity, and forget about them. The hardest thing she could ever do, but she had to. _

_To protect them. Protect her family, her friends, and...him. Because he was right. _

* * *

_"Iniuria desino!"_

_Everyone in the room said the spell at the same time, holding out their wands toward Voldemort. As soon as the spell was cast, James grabbed Lily and said loudly, "Run!" The members of the Order didn't need telling twice, before they ran out of the room and out of the front door, away from Voldemort and away from the Death Eaters._

_The group immediately apparated themselves out of there and met up again at their headquarters._

_"Where's the attack?" Elphias Doge came skidding in the room in front of them, looking as if he had just got out of bed._

_Everyone just stared at him, all breathing heavily._

_"What's going on?" Elphias asked, realizing that something happened._

_Lily threw down her wand, and started shouting, "He came and attacked while you were safe at home and he got Dorcas and-and...he got Ellyn...and we-we-" _

_James looked on helplessly. "Lily, calm down-"_

_Lily shook her head frantically. "No! I won't, I can't, I can't, I can't. We lost Ellyn, James, Ellyn of all people..."_

_Quietly, James wrapped his arms around her, whispering comforting things in her ear._

_Lily still continued, words muffled by his shirt. "She's gone, James. He killed her...he..." She calmed down, holding onto James for support._

_Remus watched as everyone dealt with the attack. He felt helpless himself and didn't know what to do next or where to go. Kady was on the floor, hair and hands covering her face. Sirius just stood there, still in shock, still not being able to process what happened. Peter had already left._

_"It'll be all right, it will..." James was whispering to Lily._

_But it wouldn't._

"...we've been staying in America. She wanted to protect you guys. But she knew she had to come back...and that's why I'm here..." I finally ended my explanation.

Remus and Kady only kept staring at me. "So...Ellyn..." Kady started to say.

"We met up with Voldemort on the way here," I answered, "And-" I trailed off, leaving her death unsaid. But it seemed as if Remus and Kady understood.

"I don't know what's worse," Remus said softly, "Ellyn's first death or knowing that Ellyn was alive this entire time and still not being able to see her again."

I bit my lip nervously, not knowing what to say.

A slam of the door behind me caused me to jump and turn around. I looked toward the door to see a younger woman -- probably in her twenties -- peeking around the ajared door. She had the most unusual hair color, a blue-green, and it was short and spiked. It was weird, but it did look nice on her. "Okay, so I'm not trying to barge in or anything, but you have some curious eavesdroppers out here, and I don't know how much they actually heard, I only think they were here for the end of it, but anyway," she continued rambling and it amused me, "I think they might be a little bit curious about what's going on. So, can they come inside?"

I raised an eyebrow and looked toward Remus and Kady. Behind the door, I could make out three shapes, probably faces. "Let them come in," Remus spoke up, "They'll need it explained to them sooner or later."

The woman moved aside to let in three people. Teenagers. Probably around the same age as me. The first, a boy, had dark, jet black hair and green eyes behind glasses. The second, a girl, had brown hair that was kind of bushy and brown eyes. The last, another boy, was very tall and lanky, with red hair and freckles. They looked at me strangely like I had invaded their personal space. I fidgeted nervously.

"Adrienne, this is Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley," Remus introduced us. For a second, I wasn't sure what to do, but I decided to hold out my hand for them to shake. They took it and shook, almost cautiously. "Everyone, this is Adrienne Hatcher. She's the daughter of one of your mother's friends, Harry."

Suddenly, I remembered what Voldemort said in the battle. Something about...killing Harry Potter...wait, _killing_ him? I frowned, confused.

"What's going on in here?"

Once again our attention was brought to the door. I watched as another person came into the room, a man this time. He had dark hair and dark eyes that shone with confusion. He stood back, watching over the whole scene.

"Um, Sirius," Remus got up from his seat, walking over. He looked a bit apprehensive about letting this man in here, "This-well...um, is Adrienne...Hatcher." He said my last name quickly and softly.

The man, Sirius, just stared at him. He didn't even say a word.

"Ellyn's daughter," Remus added as if he didn't want to say it.

There was another uncomfortable pause. I wrung my hands again in my lap and looked about the room at the others. They all were watching the confrontation between Remus and Sirius. If only I knew who everyone actually was -- not just their names. Everything would probably make so much more sense and I wouldn't be sitting here, wondering why we were having this uncomfortable pause.

"That's not possible..." Sirius finally said.

Remus turned back to look at me. "Adrienne, would you care to explain everything to Sirius?"

I stood up. "Okay," I answered.

Remus and Sirius walked over to me and Sirius took the seat across from me while Remus sat on the couch. Everyone else stayed standing but didn't leave; wanting to hear the story too.

I started the story again, explaining everything; the battle, my mother's fake death, our stay in America, the trip back, everything. When I finished, everyone just stared at me.

I looked across from me to see Sirius doing that familiar analyzing thing. He was leaning forward, watching every movement I made.

He looked up, meeting my eyes. "Adrienne?" I nodded. "How-how old are you?"

I said, with my normal answer, "Fourteen. But I'll be turning fifteen next month."

He continued to stare at me. I could feel everyone else's eyes on me too. After another long pause, Sirius asked, "Who's your father?"

I just shook my head and shrugged. "Well, my mom never told me."

An unidentified emotion flickered in Sirius's eyes. He chuckled bitterly, and frowned, leaning forward again. With a deep breath, he started to speak. "That's because it's me," he said, softly, staring at me intensely, "I'm your father."


	3. Revelation

Smart me actually deleted this chapter and had to reload it again. So, this is a rough draft of the third chapter, unlike how it was if you read it before. I need to stop being stupid...

* * *

I didn't know how to make sense of the situation. I did not know who this man was, only that he may be my father, but I didn't know who he was as a person. My _father_. Could he-?

Immediately, my gaze went to everyone else in the room that knew him and their reactions. Everyone just stared at him, mouths open, obviously shocked at such a thing.

I really needed more information. This wasn't enough. This...made no sense to me.

It was so quick that I almost missed it. Remus reached out and hit Sirius on the shoulder -- hard too.

"Ow!" Sirius yelped, breaking the silence. He looked at Remus with a surprised expression.

"I can't believe you!" Remus said loudly.

Sirius frowned, hand on his shoulder. "What did I do?" he asked him, unaware of everyone watching them interestedly.

"Obviously you did _something_," Remus exclaimed.

The first woman that came into the room...K-something...shook her head frantically. "She _hated _you, Sirius."

Sirius frowned again. "Yeah, I know," he said, and the inflection in his voice made me think that there was possibly a story behind it all.

_She sighed, her hand placed on her head in frustration, confusion and just because she couldn't_ think. _She felt like sliding down the wall, sitting on the floor, and telling herself to give up, to hide from everything._

_"Ellyn!"_

_She looked up quickly, silently cursing herself for hearing his voice._

_But there he came barging in._

_"That's not an excuse!" he continued the conversation from earlier. The one at the wedding. He stomped over, stopping in front of her so that he was close enough to stare her down._

_Ellyn just stared back at him wearily. "Yes, it is."_

_"Just because we're us, we can't be together?" Sirius concluded incredulously. He frowned at her, clearly confused and frustrated about the whole thing._

_"Everyone-" Ellyn started to explain._

_"That's it!" Sirius actually shouted, clenching his fists in anger, "You only think about what the others think! You don't care about us because you don't want everyone to know!"_

_"It's not just that!" Ellyn arguing, stepping forward to challenge him._

_"What is it then? Cause I think it's because you don't want people to talk. You don't want to give yourself into me because of what others will say!" Sirius growled, stepping back, wildly gesturing with his hands in blind frustration._

_"What makes you think that I want to give into you? Because I thought I made it clear-"_

_Sirius rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I know you hate me and I know you think I'm a womanizing jerk that deserves to suffer. But, for once, can't I be serious about _something? _And can that something be you? And can you give me a chance instead of jumping to conclusions?"_

_Ellyn just frowned at him. "I...can't." They both just stared at each other for a short time; Sirius breathing heavily and Ellyn just...staring. "What am I supposed to do?" Ellyn finally asked softly, "I told you everything. I told you-"_

_Sirius shook his head, stepping forward so that there was little distance between them. "Tell me what you would do if it was just us, if there were nobody else but us. If no one cared, if no one talked, if no one decided to interrupt into our lives. If it just was me and you, and nothing else, and nothing mattered except this moment. Tell me. What would you do? What would happen?"_

_Ellyn stared up at him, the questions repeating in her mind. "Just-"_

_"Just me and you, just us, no one else. No strings attached."_

_The last word hung in the air heavily. Ellyn shook her head slowly, staring at Sirius looking back at her intensely. She tried to form her words, but she just couldn't explain, she couldn't answer his questions. _

_Screw answers._

_With a sharp intake of a breath, Ellyn grabbed Sirius, bringing him into a hurried, frantic open-mouthed kiss. Sirius's eyes widened in shock of the surprising act before he groaned in response, pulling her in closer. He kissed back fervently, passionately, thinking to himself that each moment may be the last._

_Forgetting everything else, Ellyn wove her fingers through his hair, pressing hard against his mouth, kissing him hard enough to bruise. Letting out a growl of appreciation, Sirius lightly touched her; fingers running down her arms slowly, teasingly. He lifted her up easily, as she moved her arms down to his neck, clasping them behind his back. _

_Sirius stepped forward, taking her with him, still holding her close, holding her to him. He took quick steps, only stopping when Ellyn hit the wall, making them brake off their kiss for a second. Ellyn gasped and Sirius took this as an advantage to kiss her neck, kiss her jaw, kiss her mouth. _

_She caught his lips again, breathing heavily into the kiss, hands slowly making their way underneath his jacket. Sliding her hands upward, Ellyn pulled back, moving the jacket down Sirius's arms. Sirius leaned back so she could get it off as she leaned forward. Jacket still clinging to his wrists, Ellyn used it to pull Sirius against her and into another searing kiss. He instinctively arched against her body, groaning to himself._

_After a few seconds of intense groping and kissing, Sirius broke apart from her, hands still resting on either side of her face, as he searched her eyes for answers. "El, what are we doing?"_

_Ellyn just half smiled, leaning forward and catching him into another kiss. "We'll figure that out tomorrow morning."_

_Sirius stopped her kiss, a confused expression crossing his face. "Tomorrow...morning...?" he asked, slowly and deliberately._

_"Mmm..." was his only response from her as Ellyn started to unbutton his shirt._

_He woke up only because the sunlight streaming through the open windows was just light enough to brighten his dark of sleep. Resisting a groan, he slowly opened his eyes and checked his surroundings. Unopened boxes, white room, window..._

_Ellyn's unfinished apartment. She really needed to start unpacking..._

_Ellyn._

_He reached a lazy hand out beside him and felt nothing. He slowly turned around and his eyes met an empty side of the bed. Feeling suddenly awake, he bolted upright, and caught sight of her picking up her clothes on the ground._

_In fact...it looked like..._

_"Oh, come_ on, _El!" Sirius groaned._

_She turned around guiltily and held the clothes to herself as if he hadn't seen it all last night. She looked at him cautiously. "Sirius, you know-"_

_He frowned. "You can't be serious! You can't just run out on me and think we'll be able to forget it ever happened."_

_Ellyn duplicated his frown, shaking her head. "I just wanted to know. I just-I don't want anything else out of it, Sirius. You've had your share of one night stands, and here's our's."_

_Sirius gaped at her. "What makes you think I have one night stands?"_

_Ellyn gave him a knowing look, still backing up toward that door. "I'm just...I'm going to the bathroom and-just...be gone when I get back, okay?"_

_"No."_

_Ellyn stopped and caught Sirius's gaze, taken aback. "What?"_

_"No," he repeated, stronger, "I'm not going to leave. I just don't want this one night with you."_

_"You've been chasing me forever and you got what you wanted," Ellyn explained, "You don't do relationships and I don't do relationships with guys named Sirius Black. So, we leave it at this..."_

_"No," Sirius said again._

_She scoffed. "Listen, okay? Just leave. Stop making this harder!"_

_"Come here," he said, no emotion going through his eyes this time._

_Ellyn just shook her head. "I can't."_

_"God, Ellyn, just for once, can you take me seriously?!" Sirius said loudly, "Please, just come here."_

_After a bit of hesitation, Ellyn took a few timid steps forward and then walked over to the side of the bed, sitting cautiously on it. She made it an effort to be at least a foot away from Sirius and to only look at him if she needed to._

_"You're amazing, okay?" Sirius began._

_She shot him a shocked look, not expecting that first sentence._

_"And I know I'm an ass. But...I like you...and I like this-this-new._..step _in our relationship. And I can't act like it never happened. I can't act normal around you now. It's gone too far for that. Way too far..." Sirius trailed off._

_"We can't be in a relationship," Ellyn admitted, still facing away from him._

_"But-" Sirius started._

_"We can't be in a relationship because I don't like you like that, Sirius. I'll never be able to like you like that..."_

_There was a heavy pause. "So, last night-"_

_"I always wanted to know what it was like," Ellyn bitterly chuckled, "And you gave me a chance. And for once, I took it."_

_Sirius sighed behind her, looking down at the sheets. "I guess this is it for us, isn't it?"_

_Ellyn shrugged. "I guess."_

_Sirius fidgeted, as if he was considering really moving or not. "Can it...not be?"_

_Ellyn finally turned and faced him. "What do you mean?"_

_Sirius watched her expression carefully. "If...well, we don't get into a relationship or anything committed...but...we still can do this?"_

_"Shag each other and nothing else," Ellyn said and Sirius wasn't sure if it was sarcastic or not. He just stared back at her. "Friends with benefits..." Ellyn mused._

_There was another uncomfortable pause. "Okay," Ellyn finally said, turning around completely, "A few ground rules."_

_"Anything," Sirius immediately said, and then mentally hit himself for sounding so eager._

_She paused, and then said, carefully, "One, you can't be telling anyone about this." Sirius only nodded. "Two, no public stuff. No one can know. Three, don't start acting weird around me or anything. People will suspect." Ellyn sighed. "Four, you must never ever let my mother know about it."_

_Sirius grinned. "Cause she hates me."_

_"She doesn't hate you. She-" Ellyn looked for the right wording, hesitating. "-just hates the Blacks...in general."_

"You must never talk to him!" _Sirius mimicked her mother in a fake high voice, and then said, with another grin, "And now we're doing a bit more than talking."_

_Ellyn just shook her head at him and continued with her list. "And, last, please, _please_ don't ever fall for me." _

_Sirius gave her a strange look. "Why?"_

_"Because you're Sirius...and I'm-"_

_Sirius cut her off. "Ellyn, I know. But what does that have to do with _anything_?"_

_Ellyn gave him an annoyed look. "Be quiet or I'll just forget this whole thing."_

_Sirius grinned, moving back a bit. "Okay, fine," he said jokingly, holding up his hands in defeat._

_"Anything you want to add?" Ellyn asked him._

_Sirius acted like he was thinking it over. "How long is this for?" he finally asked._

_Ellyn shrugged. "Until we get sick of each other."_

_"I could never get sick of you," Sirius immediately responded._

_"I can of you," Ellyn retorted just as quick. She looked at him seriously, but could not hold the stare as Sirius grinned at her. Ellyn broke out in a smile. "You're an idiot," she finally laughed, shaking her head._

_"You're really pretty when you smile."_

_Ellyn turned her smile into a semi-frown. "No using pick-up lines on me."_

_Sirius watched her amusedly. "That wasn't," he singsonged. She just gave him another look, refusing to say anything. "Does that friends with benefits thing start now?" Sirius added, a little too innocently._

_"Depends," Ellyn answered, watching him._

_"I'll take that as a yes." Within a few seconds, he had Ellyn underneath him, and then cut off the kiss they were in, a mischievous look passing across his face. "I was right," he exclaimed._

_Ellyn stared up at him with amused confusion. "About?"  
He responded with a kiss, and then whispered, "I really like your tattoo..."_

_And Ellyn just rolled her eyes._

"You're my father?" I finally breathed, leaning forward in part excitement, part...anxiousness.

Sirius failed to explain the story (if there was one) to everyone in the room, and instead, turned his attention on me. "I believe so."

My heart thumped loudly in my chest, as I just stared at him, taking in everything at once. He was my _father_. I knew who he was. At least, I knew his name was Sirius and everyone in the room couldn't believe that he was my father...Taking a step back, I realized I knew nothing.

"Who are you?" I finally asked; it coming out in a breathy whisper.

"Well, I'm Sirius Black. Most of the adults you see here were friends with your mother, including me."

I glanced up again to look at the adults, eyes resting on them. They looked back at me, wide-eyed, and cautiously, as if they didn't know what to think of me.

"Sirius," Kady (I remembered) exclaimed, catching his attention, "When...and how...?" She couldn't finish her sentence and just left it for the man across from me to interpret.

"It's a long story," Sirius said simply.

Remus looked at me who was looking back with interest and then nudged Kady. She turned to Remus who gave her some sort of signal. "Oh, is that Molly calling us?"

Silence.

"Yes, I believe it was!" Remus added, and started to usher everyone out of the room.

They totally did that on purpose.

It took a minute for everyone to leave as they tried to stay, to hear something about what happened, or just tried to get another look at me: the girl who appeared to say she was Sirius's daughter.

After the last person shut the door, Sirius opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it again.

"Are you okay?" I asked, and then realized that was a bit naive.

He looked up at me, and it was then I realized I had his eye shape, but the color of my mother's eyes. "Adrienne, did your mother know before she-?"

I nodded. "Yes," I replied.

He frowned. "And she left?"  
I remembered the end of my mother's story she told me. She had left her friends to protect them. Maybe she also left to keep Sirius safe. "I think she left because she cared about you. She had to protect you because she loved you."

Sirius actually chuckled, and then looked up at me with tired eyes. "She never loved me, Adrienne."

My mother and father were never in love? Then was I just- Oh, god, was I a one night stand? "Was I a mistake then?" I asked, maybe a bit too harsh.

"Don't call yourself a mistake," he scolded me, shaking his head, "You weren't. Your mother loved you very much, right?"

I nodded slowly, remembering her. "Yes."

"And she died to save you. You were everything but a mistake to her."

I looked down at the ground as tears started to well up in my eyes. He couldn't see me cry. "And you?" I asked, trying my hardest not to let my voice crack.

"I could never think of you as a mistake. If Voldemort never went after your mother, I'm sure I would have stayed with you. I wouldn't have wanted anything than be with you and your mother."

I looked up after holding back a sob and smiled appreciatively. "Thank you."

"And now that you're here, what are you planning on doing?" Sirius asked.

I swallowed hard, trying to get myself to talk again. "Um...well, I'm not sure."

"Did you go school in America?"

I nodded, and then said, "Yes. Gallagher School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Sirius nodded to himself, and said, "Would you mind transferring to Hogwarts this year?"

What else could I do? I just smiled and told him yes, even though I would know no one and would have to start someplace entirely different.

"When's your birthday?" he asked.

I was glad for the change of subject. "September 17th."

Sirius was about to say something when there was a knock on the door. "Come in," Sirius said, as the door was cracked open.

"Supper is in ten minutes," Kady announced, appearing from behind the door, "Remus and I still want to talk to you."

Looking at me, Sirius said, "I'll meet you at supper. Why don't you go and ,meet the others?"

Even though I really didn't want to leave, I got up, leaving the room with a simple goodbye. Outside the door, I stopped right next to the threshold, leaning against the closed door. Where was I supposed to go? Go meet the others. Where were the others?

With a sigh, I began to walk down the hallway, meeting up with no one. I stopped next to an open door and peered inside. It was the kitchen. Someone was inside; a woman with red hair, who was hustling about the kitchen, getting everything ready for supper. Three people already sat at the table; the three teenagers I saw before.

"You must be Adrienne!"

Caught.

I stepped forward and answered with yes. The woman walked forward; wand in one hand and the other holding up her apron. "I'm almost done with supper. Why don't you sit down and talk to my son and his friends?"

Red haired woman. Red haired boy at the table. That must be her son. What was his last name? Weas...something. ...Weasley. Yes. I murmured a thank you to the woman and sat down on the far end of the table, watching as the three others stared at me from the other end.

"Hi," I finally said.

They just kept staring.

I took a deep breath and wished I was back home in America, with my mom who was alive, and there was no war, no death, or no awkwardness. Just to be safe.

"I'm going to gather everyone," the woman, Mrs. Weasley, announced, folding her apron and leaving it on the counter as she left the room.

I watched her leave; my attention on the doorway instead of the people across from me.

"I'm sorry," I heard behind me.

I turned around slowly to stare at them. Which one-?

"I lost my parents because of Voldemort," the one...um-...Harry said, "I know it's hard. It's probably harder for you..." He stopped there, but I knew he had more to say.

"Yeah," I said, nodding.

"Did Sirius tell you anything about...your mother?" It was said strangely.

"A bit," I said simply.

Harry leaned forward slowly, excitement shining in his eyes. "Want to learn more?"


	4. Memories

I had things to say but I forgot.

Umm...oh. There's a huge _huge_ little thing in here that I bet no one will catch. It's something that you'd have to pay attention in all the chapters (maybechaptertwomaybe) and remember each word to get. But don't worry...it'll be answered later. But if you look back, you may be able to find it out now.

And back in KMTTML, Dumbledore said something to Sirius and Ellyn about a stallion and mare and something. That's a Spring Awakening quote, and it was a little joke/hint to this story. The line in Spring Awakening is "and mares will neigh with stallions that they mate, fouls they've bourne...". See how it fit?

That's really all I have to say.

Enjoy.

_

* * *

_

_It was strange – this new thing with Ellyn. _

_Sirius often thought, after they had finished, that maybe she was falling for him. She wouldn't immediately leave afterwards; she would rest her head on his chest and just lie there._

_He would comb his fingers through her hair and let his mind wander to easier times. And he would wonder –-- wonder if Ellyn was happy._

_It was times like these he thought she was falling for him. But then came the mornings..._

_"I can't do this anymore!" Ellyn cried on a new morning, picking up his clothes and throwing them at him, "Just...leave."_

_It was always the same. Sirius stared back at __her with a frown. "You don't mean that."_

_"I can't," Ellyn repeated over and over._

_Sirius just grabbed his clothes from her. "You say that every morning and every night you make me come back. You practically beg me!"_

_Ellyn scoffed in disbelief. "I don't beg, Black."_

_"You wouldn't be able to last one night without me," Sirius challenged with a smirk._

_"Try me."_

_She lost that battle. He knew she would. She also knew -- but didn't want to admit it._

_It was that night that they had a conversation afterward which was strange since they had never talked before._

_"Sirius-" Ellyn whispered from her usual spot._

_"Mmm?" Sirius muttered, half-asleep._

_Ellyn sighed, contemplating on what to actually say. "I saw your list."_

_Sirius frowned in confusion. "My list?"_

_"Your list, Sirius."_

_The realization hit Sirius suddenly, bringing him fully awake. His list. He hadn't looked at the list in awhile. "What about it?" he asked, wondering where Ellyn was going with this._

_"You didn't put me on it," Ellyn explained, playing with a loose thread in the blanket._

_"Why would I?" _

_"Because of..." Ellyn gestured over them. "-this."_

_Sirius paused before answering, "You're different."_

_Ellyn bit her lip, pulling the covers up to her neck. "Why?" she whispered, almost dreading the answer even though she didn't know what to expect._

_"Because you're Ellyn and I'm Sirius."_

_Ellyn chuckled at his use of her joke and the weight was lifted off her shoulders. "Yeah..." she agreed and snuggled closer to him._

_Sirius just smiled and decided to let her sleep._

"We shouldn't be spying," the girl, the one with the strange British name, warned us.

The rest of us looked back at her and Harry said, "They're talking about our parents. We have the chance to learn about them. Don't you think-"

"No," she cut him off, crossing her arms, "It's _spying_, Harry."

Ron nudged Harry. "Don't listen to Hermione." The girl frowned. "Do it anyway. It's a chance to finally learn about your parents."

I stood a bit to the side, still not comfortable talking to these people. I didn't even know why they were being so nice to me. I'd personally feel strange.

"Hide!" Hermione suddenly exclaimed, pushing us behind the door. "They're coming."

We moved behind the door. I peered through the crack, watching as Remus, Kady, and Sirius left the room in which they had been conversing. They were probably leaving for supper. I felt bad for skipping supper but Ron had explained to his mother that they wanted some time to get to know me. She let us skip but still, I felt awful.

But to know about my mother and my father. It was worth it.

"Come on," Harry whispered and we made our way into the back room. Everyone looked around for anything that could be a clue. Anything someone could have left behind...

It was just like we left it. Except a door in the back of the room was cracked open. It looked like a closet. I hadn't noticed it before.

I made my way to the door and cautiously opened it a bit more. It creaked loudly and I flinched involuntarily, leaning over to look at what was inside.

A room that was all but empty greeted me. In the center of the room stood a pedestal on which was an object that looked quite familiar. Wait. I knew what this was.

"There's a Pensieve in here," I said loudly.

"A -- what?" Ron immediately responded.

They all started to make their way over. "A Pensieve, Ron, is a basin in which a wizard or witch can store their memories," Hermione explained.

Ron just rolled his eyes while Harry nodded in agreement to Hermione's words.

I opened the door the rest of the way so they could also see what was inside. It was a round basin, small in size, and cast silvery shadows on the wall.

"I wonder..." I walked forward, pulling out of my wand.

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked me, worry evident in her tone.

"I'm going to see what's in here," I announced. "Who wants to join me?"

Harry immediately stepped forward. "I do."

Hermione shook her head. "You guys go. You're the ones who need to see it the most."

"I'm going!" Ron spoke up.

Hermione sent him an annoyed look. "Let them go. We don't need to."

Ron made a frustrated sound and flopped down on the couch. Hermione smiled at us. "Hurry back," she said, stepping back.

Harry nodded at her before turning toward me. "Ready?"

"Definitely."

* * *

When everything rematerialized, we were in the middle of a corridor; a deserted one at that. Nothing could be heard and I looked around for any sign of life. 

"We're at Hogwarts," Harry commented, sending a glance my way.

"Your school?"

Harry nodded, looking around. "The question is...when."

I walked forward a bit and checked our surroundings.

"You're just hoping Lily is going to be there," I heard behind me. I whirled around to see a younger Sirius walk up next to another boy, one that looked like Harry. His father. They looked to be around our age, maybe a bit older.

"What if I am? She's going to say yes one day," Harry's father said back to Sirius.

Sirius just shook his head. "Whatever," he said, adding in a roll of the eyes for effect.

They walked by us and I turned to keep them in my eyesight. I looked over at Harry and we both began to follow them.

Suddenly, Harry's father stopped; a grin appearing on his face. We stopped next to them, looking over to where they were. I saw a pretty red-head talking to a blonde girl and someone with brown hair. ...My mom.

Harry's father ruffled his hair and quickly strode over to them and Sirius followed him. We practically had to jog to keep up.

"Evans!" Harry's father said brightly, coming to a stop right behind her.

The red-head sighed in exasperation, and then turned around, coming face to face with Harry's father. "Potter."

I was barely paying attention to what was going on. I had stepped to the side to watch my mother. She looked at the boys with curiosity but with a hint of annoyance like Harry's mother did (I thought for a second about what my mother had told me about Harry's mother and remembered that her name was Lily Evans) did but without showing as much.

"It's a Hogsmeade trip today," Harry's father said with a grin.

Harry's mother frowned. "No," she said quickly.

"I didn't even ask yet!" Harry's father exclaimed.

"Didn't have to." His mother tried to make a quick get-a-way, but it wasn't happening.

"You're going to say yes one day."

She turned around, arms crossed, her lips curved into another frown. "Don't think so, Potter."

Sirius was watching my mother, who, instead, was watching the fight between Harry's mother and father. Lily turned to leave and my mom and the blonde (who, looking at more closely, noticed was Kady) were ready to leave for Hogsmeade too.

"Hey, Hatcher," Sirius suddenly said.

My mom finally looked at him. "Yes?" she asked and I could definitely tell the annoyance was still there.

"Want to skip the Hogsmeade trip and see what my dormitory looks like?" Sirius asked her; eyes sparkling with mischief.

"Not really," my mom said. Kady started to giggle to herself as they left.

Sirius and Harry's father watched them walk away. "She loves me," Harry's father exclaimed with another grin.

Sirius snorted at his friend's behavior as a tall blonde walked by. "You continue thinking about Evans," Sirius said, "...and I'm going to introduce myself to her." It was Harry's father turn to snort as Sirius strode over to the blonde, on the way reciting some pick-up line about falling from heaven. The girl giggled and said her name was Laura. The memory began to fade...

We were in a big room this time, with armchairs, a couch, and a fireplace.

"We're in the Gryffindor common room," Harry said suddenly.

I took everything in, looking for anyone I would recognize. Sitting in a couch in front of the fireplace, I saw Harry's father, Sirius, Remus, and this other boy I didn't know. They looked to be a bit older than before.

Harry frowned when he saw the other boy, but I still knew he was glad to see his father and his friends again.

"Let's get closer," I said, walking up to behind the couch.

Harry followed, stopping next to me. "Was that your mother in the other memory?" he asked, still watching for any action.

"Yeah," I answered softly, leaning over the back of the couch.

Harry just nodded and looked to a staircase at the side of the room. "It's them," he exclaimed and I looked up to see the three girls coming down from where I could only guess were the dormitories.

Harry's father seemed to notice to. His eyes brightened as he looked over and he threw his friends a grin before running over to meet them at the bottom of the staircase.

The three girls gave him a strange look as he started to babble, run a hand through his hair, and then gesture wildly. Lily said something before leaving the common room.

Harry's father, Kady, and my mother came over to where Sirius, Remus, and the other boy were still sitting.

I looked quickly over at Harry to see him watching his father fall dramatically on the couch, with a huge sigh.

"James, you can't expect her to fall for you after you act like an idiot in front of her," my mother explained to him, sitting in an armchair across from him.

"I'm not an idiot," Harry's father, James, argued. He moved to sit back up again.

"Yes, you are," everyone said in unison.

James sent everyone an annoyed look, falling back again on the couch. "What am I supposed to do? She told me we dance circles around each other."

"Well, you do," Remus said wisely.

"She doesn't want to admit it...but...she loves me," James said slowly.

My mother smiled. "You know that's a musical?"

Kady turned to look at my mother. "What does that have to do with anything?"

James grinned. "Because she does love me."

"Actually," my mother spoke up, "the main characters hate each other." James groaned, putting a pillow over his face, probably trying to suffocate himself and end his misery. "But then they realize they are actually madly in love with each other."

James threw the pillow off his face which preceeded to hit Sirius in the face. "Hey!" Sirius yelped, throwing it back at him.

"See!" James explained, sitting up, "That proves it. We just need Lily to admit she loves me."

My mother looked at him. "She said you dance circles around each other, right?" A slow smile appeared on her face. "Give me an hour."

And it began to fade away.

We were back in room with the Pensieve. I looked at Harry cautiously, still wide-eyed from everything I had seen. Harry looked back nervously.

"My mom hated him," Harry finally whispered.

"Well, my parents didn't exactly get along great either," I responded. It probably wasn't what Harry wanted to hear, but I found I had to say it anyway.

We walked out of the little closet and saw Ron and Hermione asleep on the couch. I turned to Harry with a smile. "Are those two a couple?"

Harry actually laughed. "Ron and Hermione? Sometimes I think they should be." Harry walked over to them and knelt down. "Guys! Wake up!"

Ron and Hermione immediately woke, springing up from their positions on the couch. "What did you see?" Ron said drowsily, cutting off any comment that would come their way.

Harry frowned, and hesitated before saying, "Our parents..."

He left it at that and didn't explain further. I was starving, and I was thankful for the short explanation as we made our way to the kitchen.

_"Ellyn?" Sirius knocked on the door of her bedroom. He had left early in the morning to check what was happening at the Order, and came back as soon as he could. It was still extremely early, around seven in the morning._

_For some reason, the door of her bedroom was locked. She never locked it. Unless, of course, she was going to go into her "we can't do this anymore!" lecture._

_"El?" Sirius tried again, leaning against the door, knocking loudly on it._

_"Go away," he heard a voice come from the other side. It was soft but meaningful._

_"I'm not leaving," Sirius announced, ready for this lecture again._

_"No, Sirius, I really can't. I can't do this with you anymore. I don't want to. I really don't."_

_It was a bit more than her normal speech. Normally, she never said she didn't want to do it anymore. She always wanted to. _

_"I don't want to stop this," Sirius said to her, wishing that she would open the door so he could talk to her._

_"Why?" The word was said tearfully. He didn't realize she had been crying._

_"Because I like this," he explained, resting his forehead on the door._

_"And why am I not on your list? And why do you want this so bad with me? Why, Sirius, why?" The last three words were loud._

_Sirius took a deep breath. "Because you're Ellyn."_

_There was a sob from the other room. "We can't."_

_Sirius pounded on the door in frustration. "Is there a reason?" _

_No answer. Sirius waited for one, now breathing heavily from the frustration. "Yes," an answer finally came in a breath after a minute._

_"What is it? Tell me, Ellyn, we can get through this!" Sirius yelled. There was no answer again. Sirius stomped his foot hard in frustration. "You know what Ellyn? Your last rule? Screw it." He slid down the door to sit on the floor. He hit his head on the door. "Because I've fallen so _hard _for you."_

_Ellyn was sitting on the floor too, leaning against the door, listening. She brought her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, hiding her face. _

_"You promised me," she finally said._

_"I need you, El. Please don't do this..." Sirius continued._

_"Sirius, I don't-I can't-" Ellyn stuttered, wiping away her tears._

_Sirius stood up again. "I think you're falling for me, Ellyn Hatcher," Sirius said bravely._

_There was another pause. For a second, Sirius felt a glimmer of hope. The door slowly creaked open and Sirius came face to face with Ellyn, face dry. She looked at Sirius directly in the eye. _

_"No."_

_She said it coldly. _

_"Ellyn-" Sirius tried._

_"Don't, Sirius, I don't want to hear any of it. Leave me alone." _

_She walked past him and made her way out of the house. He hesitated for a second, and then started to follow. _

Pop!

_Sirius turned away quickly to see a member of the Order apparate in. "The Meadows. Now." And then he disapparated away._

_Sirius didn't waste any time. He caught up to Ellyn, spinning her around to talk to him. "The Order needs us. Now. They're at the Meadows."_

_It seemed as if their fight was cast aside. She nodded in understanding before they apparated away to the scene._

It was almost two in the morning. I lied in my bed, wide awake, sleep not even a possibility.

My mind kept wandering to what I had saw in the Pensieve. It wasn't a lot; just enough to make me wonder. I had only seen glimpses of what my mother and father were like as teenagers and it made me think...

My parents had been really...out spoken. Sirius seemed to be the ladies man -- going with that Laura girl. And my mom -- she was just like I remembered her. If I could only see more.

A click.

Was that the door? I refused to believe so and continued to stare up at the blank ceiling.

"Adrienne?"

My heart skipped a beat and I put a hand to my head in fright. I turned my head to the side and saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione standing next to my bed -- still in their pajamas.

I let out a sigh of relief and sat up. "What are you guys doing here?"

Ron and Hermione gestured toward Harry. "I couldn't sleep," Harry explained, "I kept thinking about what we saw."  
I nodded in agreement and said, surprising even myself, "Want to go back?"

Harry grinned. "Come on."

All this was strange. It seemed as if Harry understood what I was thinking. We were both finding out secrets to our pasts and it connected us in a way. My relationship to everyone in the room was way different from when I first entered that kitchen.

Hermione started in on her lecture about how we shouldn't invade. "It's supposed to be private."

Ron however looked excited. "I think we should all go this time."

Hermione sighed, looking at everyone's eager faces. "Fine," she finally caved in, "but only because you all want to see your parents so bad."

We were in outside, next to an oak tree. There were many students milling about, passing by us without a glance.

I stepped to the side and saw someone on the other side of the oak tree. My mother. She was writing in a notebook, apparently oblivious to the world.

And then the red-head, Harry's mother, came up from the castle and sat on the other side of the tree. Looking toward the others quickly, we all walked up to hear what was going on.

On the way there, I wondered whose memories were in this Pensieve. I looked back to the other two and realized there that Sirius was in all of them from the beginning. But where was he in this one? I looked back and saw him and his friends from the memories come down the steps of the castle. Ah.

Finally, I could hear the conversation in front of us. "...I want to do something," my mother said.

"We will."

"I want to be an auror."

"I do too."

Then there was silence.

"You're not supposed to be here."

With a jolt of surprise, I turned toward the new voice. It was Remus -- the present one.

Caught.

"We should get back." And Sirius.

Harry and I exchanged worried looks before looking back toward the two. "I'm sorry," I immediately tried to apologize. They were going to hate me forever and I wouldn't get to stay and-

"This is after your parents got together, Harry," Remus explained, pointing to the scene.

"After class one day. First day of spring, I believe," Sirius added.

Remus smiled. I watched them watch the scene in front of them. It was like they were lost in the past, looking for the innocent times.

"Come on," Remus finally said, breaking out of his stupor.

And I watched the scene fade away...

* * *

Review and I'll love you forever. 

And maybe update Serious.

This story will hopefully be updated next weekend.

Oh, and there's a survey on my profile that I'd love for you all to take and send to me through a PM or something. It's about this story and it's important.


	5. Truth

What?! I'm updating this? Yep. My friend found her copy of this chapter, she edited it, I edited it, and then I retyped the whole thing. I was stressful but it's done. Two months since my last update but I promise all of you that it won't be that long for the next one.

Enjoy.

* * *

It had been three weeks since I had first set foot into number 12, Grimmauld Place, leaving only a couple days until the start of the school term. The weeks passed quickly; however, ever since the Pensieve incident, no further information about the past had been uncovered. And it frustrated me. 

I spent each day waiting for something to happen. Someone to say something at least. I couldn't just ask someone about it. Waiting, though, had proved to be tedious.

But that something finally came in the form of packages.

It was still early in the morning when I silently made my way down the stairs. Stopping at the bottom, I realized that I couldn't move forward. A barricade of boxes stood in my way.

After a couple minutes of maneuvering between them all, I finally got to the kitchen, where Sirius, Remus, and Mrs. Weasley were already conversing.

"What are we supposed to do with them? We don't have room to store them," Mrs. Weasley said.

"We can have Adrienne go through them all. Let her keep the important things," Remus exclaimed.

Sirius looked over and his eyes connected with mine. He knew I had been standing there the entire time.

There was a silence that I decided to take advantage of. I turned around and pointed behind me. "I saw the boxes on the way in. What's in them?"

"I'm sure you noticed that Tonks and Moody were missing for the last couple days," Sirius started to explain. I nodded in response. "We sent them to retrieve the things left in your old house."

My eyes widened. "Everything?"

"For some reason, they thought it would be wise to pack it all in boxes and leave them in the front hall for everyone to trip over."

Tonks's voice came from the other room. "Stop complaining, Sirius!"

A smile flickered on Sirius's face. "If you want to, you can go through everything."

Feeling better than I had since I had got here, I broke out into a grin. "Can I take some of the boxes upstairs and sort through them there?"

The group in the kitchen agreed with me and I practically ran out of the room, skidding to a halt in front of the first box. Placing three smaller ones on top of it, I grabbed them and made my slow way upstairs.

After almost falling twice, I got stopped halfway up by Fred and George, who had decided to randomly Apparate in the middle of the staircase.

"What's going on?" the closest one said. (Three weeks here and I still couldn't tell them apart.)

"It's my things," I explained briefly, moving to the side to bypass them.

"We'll take them," the twins said in unison and before I could protest, they had grabbed my boxes and Disapparated.

I stood on the stairs for a moment, wondering where they had gone. After giving up just wondering, I made my way upstairs, noticing that Ron and Harry's room door was open. Curiously, I made my way over and found Fred and George placing the boxes on Ron's bed. Ron didn't look too thrilled about that.

Harry, Hermione, and a fuming Ron were standing across the room, staring strangely at the twins, who probably hadn't yet explained why they were there.

"Thanks a lot, guys," I said, somewhat sarcastically. I contemplated on just leaving with my boxes but since the group looked so interested, I went into the story about what they were.

"It's all the things from your old house?" Ron asked curiously, moving one and sitting on his bed.

"Yes," I responded and addressed the group. "Do you want to help me? There's a lot of boxes."

They didn't even have to answer. Within a few minutes, everyone was opening their own box, sorting through the items they found.

The first thing I found in mine was a crocheted blanket – the one from my canopy bed I had when I was a child. The memory of my Aunt Mae first giving it to me caused a small smile to appear on my face. Though it felt weird to see it in my hands after leaving it in my house many months ago.

I looked up to see everyone else taking out things that didn't mean much to me. Ron was sorting through my book set, Harry was looking at a calender, Hermione was staring at a decorative picture. The twins had left to leave the four of us alone.

Sorting through my box, I realized there wasn't much in it. At one side of the box, something white and flat finally caught my eye. Pulling it out, I saw it was an envelope; a plain one that only said one thing on the front: Sirius.

Why would there be a letter to Sirius in here?

With a jolt of shock, I realized that it was from my mother – it had to be. Fingering it between my fingers, I contemplated on what to do with it. I really wanted to read it even thought it wasn't addressed to me. I wanted to know why my mom had left a letter to Sirius in our house. I needed answers.

Carefully making a small cut in the corner, I cut it along the top and pulled out the letter. With trembling fingers. I unfolded the piece of paper, and began to read.

_I_ knew_ that you would go through my things, Sirius. I knew if something happened, you would send for my things and get them. Guess what? Personal belongings are _personal_. Just in case you forgot._

_That's not why I'm writing, however. I don't need to reprimand you. If you're reading this, it means that something has happened to me. And I hope you aren't too angered about what happened between us. About Adrienne, about my disappearance, about everything._

_I suppose I should explain. And I'm starting out by saying I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about our daughter. She probably told you that I left because I was trying to protect you. And it's true. I was trying to protect you, to save you, even if that meant leaving you._

_I didn't want to leave, Sirius. When I told you that morning that I didn't want to see you again, I was scared. I had found out that morning that I was pregnant and I didn't think we could work around it. I couldn't be pregnant with your child – our relationship was supposed to be a secret and it wouldn't have been able to stay that way. But I never really wanted to leave. I never wanted to stop what we were doing. It's just that I'm a coward, I guess. I had to run. Because you couldn't._

_I'm sure you're wondering why I didn't come back after the fall of Voldemort. I heard about what had happened; I heard about Lily and James and you were in Azkaban. And thinking I had nothing to come back to, I stayed in America and brought Adrienne up there. But I knew right away you were innocent; you would never betray Lily or James. I just couldn't come back when you were away. It scared me._

_And _you_ scared me. That morning you told me that I was falling for you. I tried to keep my ground, telling myself and you that it was just a physical relationship – nothing more. However, I knew I had been slowly falling for you since day one. It was frightening me and I didn't want to admit it. I just admitted it to myself that fateful day; I wasn't ready to admit it to anyone else. I was falling so deep and I didn't want to. I couldn't be in love with you. I couldn't be in love with Sirius Black._

_I can see your grin in my head at these next words: I was in love with you. Right now, you're probably gloating inside about how you were right the entire time. Stop that. I know I lost that battle. But I'm not saying I'm devastated I lost. In fact, it was a good thing. It still is because I'm forevermore in love with you. Yes, Sirius, I love you. How many times do I have to write it? Even if I'm in love with you, with our current situations, we can never be together. We're living two separate lives, and if you are reading this, then that means I most definitely can never be with you. I'm sorry._

_You still have Adrienne. Stay with her, Sirius. She's amazing, you'll see. Teach her well._

_I'm afraid I'm winding down to the end of this letter. I just needed to write all this down now. I needed to say to someone, something, everything that had been on my mind since that night._

_We'll meet again, Sirius._

_Love, Ellyn_

Sirus's words rang through my head from my first night here.

_She never loved me, Adrienne_.

I felt as though a weight was lifted off my shoulders. She _did_ love him. They loved each other. And Sirius didn't even know yet.

Placing the letter back into the envelope, I ran to fetch Fred and George from whatever they were doing (they were tinkering with something that kept exploding) and held out the envelope for them to see. "Know how to seal this?" Seeing as they were the only ones that I could trust and do magic, I let them reseal the envelope (but not after they tried to find out why I had it in the first place).

I was quickly walking to the staircase when the trio came out from the bedroom to see what I was doing. Telling myself to explain to them later, I bounded down the staircase, finally stopping to a halt in the kitchen, where all the adults were still sitting.

"I found this," I panted, a bit out of breath, holding out the envelope toward Sirius. I tried to make myself look nonchalant about the whole ordeal, but I could barely contain my enthusiasm.

He gave me a strange look, taking it from my grasp and turning it over in his hands. His eyes widened and I could tell right away that he recognized my mother's handwriting.

All of the rest of the Order (or most of them at least) were watching with interest but refused to say anything in case Sirius decided to leave and not tell them.

I watched as Sirius opened the envelope and took out the letter, unfolded as I had. And then he started to read.

His expression changed throughout the reading of the letter. A smile played on his face for the first couple seconds, then it faded and his expression became serious. There were many seconds where Sirius looked thoughtful while reading and when his eyes widened and the letter almost dropped from his fingers, I knew he had gotten to the part. On his face, a slow grin started to appear, and he actually chuckled at a line (probably about how my mom wrote that he would be grinning). He read the rest with a half shocked expression, half something that I couldn't place.

"What is it?" Remus asked as Sirius started to fold the letter back up again.

Sirius shook his head in disbelief. "It's a letter from Ellyn."

Kady had just entered the room and Sirius said the last word of his phrase. "Ellyn?" she asked; her voice filled with shock.

"She-" Sirius faltered. I continued to stare at him, watching his reaction. "-she...wrote about her absence and...things..."

Remus raised his eyebrows. "What did she have to say?"

Sirius unfolded the letter again and skimmed over it. "She said why she left, mentioned Adrienne, why she didn't come back, our relationship..."

Remus and Kady both glanced at each other in shock. "Exactly _what_ about your relationship?" Kady asked excitedly. I could see her teenager-self shining through. She was absolutely giddy.

Sirius looked like he was about to say something, and then, instead, smiled and pocketed the letter. "Nothing really."

Kady's mouth dropped open. "What? You're not going to tell me?!"  
Sirius just shrugged, got up and swiftly left the room.

I grinned as I looked at Kady's and Remus's expressions."So, what's for breakfast?" I asked innocently.

* * *

It was the night before September first. Thinking of leaving number 12, Grimmauld Place was exciting to me; I hadn't been out of this house in forever. However, by leaving, I would never know more about my parents and – come to think of it – Harry's.

We hadn't found out anything since that Pensieve scene. With only one more day left, I realized we needed to take some serious action. We needed to ask them...directly.

"Oh, come _on_, it's almost noon" I complained with Hermione outside the boys' door.

This reminded me of all those times years ago, trying to get my mother up to go somewhere. I had taken after Aunt Mae, getting up early, while my mother slept in like the boys were doing.

There was a groan from the other side of the door. "Sleeeep..." I heard who I supposed to be Ron.

After a couple seconds of tapping our feet and crossing our arms, we realized that no one was coming to open the door. Hermione and I exchanged exasperated glances. I sighed and opened the door anyway, flooding the darkened room with light. I hoped I wouldn't be met with horrific images.

"Sleeping past noon is a waste of time," I started to lecture them, walking into the bedroom.

We were met with groans and disappearances behind the covers. I stood in the middle of the room and just waited.

Peeking through the open door, I saw a flash of red hair. "What's going on?" Ginny walked into the room, looking over at the occupied beds and then at us.

"They won't get up," Hermione immediately answered.

Ginny placed her hands on her hips and then said, loudly, "WAKE UP!"

Seeing as it even startled me, the response was immediate. Both boys bolted upright in their beds, eyes wide. Ginny grinned at us.

"You sounds more and more like mum," Ron complained, rubbing his eyes, pulling his blankets up to go back to sleep.

"Fine, go back to sleep," I snapped, turning away to leave, "But I'm going to ask Remus and Sirius questions by myself."

Working just as well as Ginny's yell, they were both wide awake again. I walked out of the room without another word, Hermione and Ginny right behind.

Shutting the door behind us, Hermione asked, "Are you really going to ask without them?"

"Give them two minutes," I said with a smile.

* * *

"I have questions."

My exclamation was met with silence. The people across from me didn't flinch, didn't move, just sat staring at me, not saying a word.

"Please," I continued. "Before I leave, I really want to know everything. I want to know what happened to you all after my mother's supposed death." Harry and Ron entered the room then, and I added, "Harry wants to know too. It's not only me."

Remus looked over with a sigh. "Adrienne, it's not that simple..."

"Yes, it is," I argued. "I've been here for three weeks and all I know is what I learned the first day. I'm leaving tomorrow and I still don't know anything. I have a right to know. We all do." It frustrated me about how little they would tell us.

"All right," Sirius replied.

Not expecting them to give in that easily, I looked at him with shock. "Honestly?" I saw Remus give Sirius a shocked look too.

"You're right. You have the right to know. We shouldn't be keeping it from you," Sirius said, and then turned to Harry. "Harry, sit down. It's a long story."

Harry sat in the seat next to me and then Ron and Hermione sat next to him.

Sirius, without any hesitation, dove right into the story. "After that fateful night at the Meadowes, we all had to stay together to stay safe. Especially with you mother being pregnant with you, Harry."

_It had only been three days after that night but already life was becoming normal again. Except for the group. Every day, every house, another memory from that night would invade their minds and they would become distracted._

_Lily, who had resorted to staying in her house, curled up in a chair, trying to forget everything. It was late at night and yet, Lily still hadn't moved._

_"What are you thinking?"_

_She looked up quickly to see James staring down at her, concern etched on his face._

_Lily pulled the blanket closer around her shoulders. "I was just thinking..." she trailed off and swallowed hard. "-that now I have to choose a new godmother."_

_James sat down on the arm of the chair, facing in toward her. "Are you going to let Kady be godmother then?" he asked softly._

_Lily hesitated. "I feel like it's an insult to Ellyn, you know. We promised her and everything. I don't want to take that away..."_

_James nodded. "We don't need to have a new godmother."_

_Lily bit her lip. "Like Ellyn could still be the official godmother?"_

_James placed a comforting hand on Lily's shoulder. "We still have Sirius as godfather. I think it's a great idea to leave the title of godmother to Ellyn."_

_Lily smiled sadly, resting her head on James's shoulder. "Thank you."_

_James leaned down and placed a kiss on top of Lily's head. "Any time."_

* * *

_"Lily, I suggest that you stay here at the Order or your home for the remainder of your pregnancy," Dumbledore told her._

_Lily nodded in understanding. "Yes, I know."_

_Remus caught Dumbledore's attention. "What is the plan for the rest of us?"_

_They had all noticed the change in Dumbledore's personality. Dumbledore caught Lily and James's eye. "I need to talk to the Potters. Everyone else, could you please leave us for a moment?"_

_There was a scuffle as everyone left the room..._

"What Dumbledore said to James and Lily that night made them...more careful, more worried," Sirius explained, lost in thought.

Remus nodded, and I was surprised to hear him add to the conversation. "But even though they tried to be careful and not meet up with Voldemort again, it happened anyway..."

* * *

This story is remaining Lily/James probably just until the next chapter. Then I'm going to change it so that it's just OC. My editor/roomie/friend and I just finally found a plot for this story and even though it's going to shock some of you, I'm writing it. You won't even see it coming.

Review to tell me you're still reading this story even after the long wait for an update.


	6. Reflections

Chapter six. Whooooooo.

First, there's a spell in here that made me beta crack up because I had no clue which one to use so she made me keep it. So don't flame me saying I have a stupid spell in here.

Enjoy!

* * *

I blinked. "What do you mean?"

Everyone looked at me. I stared back. Why did Voldemort come after Harry's parents multiple times? What importance did they have?

Sirius caught my gaze. "You don't know?"

I shook my head, biting my lip. I felt stupid – obviously everyone but me knew. Why did I have to live in America and be oblivious to the wizarding world?

Remus smiled reassuringly at me. "I'll explain everything to you later."

Gratefully, I nodded.

Looking straight at us, Remus continued. "It wasn't until around four months later when they met up with him again..."

_A six month pregnant Lily sat at the table in the main room of the Order. Sighing loudly, she waited for someone to tell her what was going on._

_Sirius had come in that morning to drag James away with some urgent news which Lily hadn't heard yet. So, she sat, waiting._

_Suddenly, James stormed in, quickly rushing to get his things together._

_"Where are you going?" Lily asked, catching his attention._

_James looked up as he put on his cloak.__ "Caradoc has vanished. We're going to search his house." _

_"Let me go."_

_James looked at her with softened eyes. "Lily, you know you can't go anywhere-"_

_Lily stood up suddenly and raised her voice. "I've basically been under house arrest, James! I can't stand it! Please , just let me go."_

_He took a step toward her, trying to keep his cool. "And what? Let you just put yourself and our child in danger?"_

_"I need to do something!" Lily retorted._

_James shook his head incredulously. "I can't let you get hurt. Or our _child_, Lily, think about that. You're in your sixth month. It's crucial for you to-"_

_Lily turned away from James, refusing to look at him anymore. "I can't just sit here and watch as you, and everyone else I love, get hurt. I _can't_, James."_

_James took a moment to take in a breath. He slowly walked up behind Lily and placed his hands on her shoulders comfortingly. "You know I would do anything for you, let you do anything, but I can't let you do this," he told her softly._

_She turned around to face him. "I have to go. Please, just this once. Once, James..."_

* * *

_Sirius turned around and spotted James, ready to leave. And then he noticed that someone behind him._

_"Lily?" Sirius voiced, raising an eyebrow at them. "What are you doing here?"_

_Lily smiled at him. "I'm going with you guys."_

_Sirius sent a shocked look at James. "But...she...she's-"_

_James sighed, taking Lily's hand in his. "She promised to stay out of harm's way. And to get out if any sign of danger appears."_

_Sirius looked at Lily for a second. "Promise?" he asked her._

_Lily smiled at his thoughtfulness. "Yes, Sirius, I'm not going to get in the way," she assured him._

_The whole Order Apparated to the road outside of Caradoc's house. Staring up at the seemingly quiet home, they slowly made their way up the steps to the front door._

_"_Alohomora_," James whispered, pointing his wand at the door knob. It clicked open and he pushed the door open._

_It looked completely normal inside. Not a thing was out of order._

_"There's nothing here," Remus concluded, after checking in the kitchen._

_James put down his wand. Lily looked at him and declared, "See, you didn't even have to worry."_

_"_Avada kedavra!" _It happened so quickly that no one had time to react._

_They barely had time to see Dorcas Meadows crumple to the ground beside them._

_"Lily, get out of here!" James yelled, hastily pushing her out of the way._

_Stumbling slightly, she looked up at him with unafraid eyes, shaking her head. _

_James didn't have time to complain that she had broken her promise before Voldemort stepped out in front of the group. "Silly girl," he spoke, kicking Dorcas's body. "Trying to take me when she should have known that I am the most powerful wizard there is."_

_"That's Dumbledore."_

_James's eyes widened as he realized it was Lily who spoke._

_Voldemort turned to look at her and smirked slightly. "Ah, it was you who spoke, yes?"_

_The group looked in Lily in fear. Lily, instead, stood her ground. "Yes. Professor Dumbledore is the greatest and most powerful wizard of all time."_

_Voldemort raised his wand. "We'll see about that."_

_"_Protego!"

"Avada kedavra!"

_The two spells were cast at the same time, colliding in between James, Lily and Voldemort. James held his wand steady, concentrating on the spell, and quickly glanced at his wife. "Get out of here," he hissed to her._

_Lily held up her wand, never taking her eyes off of James. "I'm not leaving you."_

_Voldemort withdrew the curse with a sneer. "Constantly challenging me, I see. You shouldn't waste my time with this trivial game. It'll end up just like the time before when I killed your other friend-"_

_"_Silencio!"

_In a silent rage, Sirius glared, chest heaving, his wand pointed straight ahead at Voldemort. _

_Voldemort blocked his spell and smirked once again. "Ah, touchy subject, is it?" Sirius didn't say anything, instead, tightening his hold on his wand. Voldemort chuckled. "Love is a weak emotion," he explained. "It makes you defenseless. Such a shame to place yourself in a vulnerable position."_

_"You're wrong," Sirius exclaimed, his voice no more than a growl._

_Voldemort feigned amusement. "And why is that?" he challenged._

_Sirius took a step forward. "It just makes me want to kill you more. _Ferio!"

_The spell hit Voldemort on the shoulder and, as a result, he hissed and stepped back. "_Crucio!"_ Voldemort retaliated._

_The spell was blocked by a shout of "_Protego_!". Remus stepped forward to join the group, wand raised like the rest of them. _

_There was no more verbal exchange between them. Voldemort didn't take any time in casting the Killing Curse, narrowly missing Kady._

_She looked up in fear and shock at the rest of them and they immediately responded with their own curses. "_Offensio_!" Lily and James shouted at the same time, which caused Voldemort to loose his balance for a second._

_The Order members took this moment to silently come to an agreement and then quickly Disapparated as Voldemort was distracted._

_Back in the safety of the Headquarters, James gathered Lily in his arms. "Don't ever do that again," he whispered in her hair, holding her close._

_Lily relaxed in his embrace. "I won't, I'm sorry..." she trailed off, clutching onto him as if her life depended on it._

_Sirius watched the two and sighed softly, turning around to meet Remus._

_"Are you okay?" Remus asked him, concerned._

_Sirius took a deep breath before responding, "I'm just-" he hesitated and then said, "I need some time alone." He walked off, leaving the rest to wonder._

* * *

_"Are you sure you have everything?" _

_Remus smiled at Lily and gave her a nod. "Yes, for the millionth time, I have everything. Now don't worry."_

_Lily bent down and gave the little baby in Remus's arms a kiss on the forehead. "All right, Harry, you be good for Remus, okay?"_

_The little boy, barely five months old, giggled and raised his arms to reach for his mother. _

_Lily immediately 'aww'-ed, making Remus sigh. "Oh, I can't just leave him alone..." Lily exclaimed, letting Harry latch onto her finger._

_James walked into the living room and said, with amusement, "Lily, he'll be fine. Remus is going to be here watching him. And who is more responsible than Remus?"_

Lily sighed in defeat, slowly letting go of her baby. "You're right. We're supposed to meet Dumbledore in five minutes."

_James looked around. "Sirius isn't here yet?"_

At that moment, Sirius came through the front door, out of breath. "Sorry, thought I was going to be late and I tripped and-"

_James grinned. "Smart," he proclaimed._

_Sirius looked over at Remus and Harry. "Aha, there is my little godson!" he said, crossing across the room and ruffled the black hair that already adorned the baby's head._

_"Sirius, we have to go. You're going to get Lily started again!" James complained._

_Lily sent James a look. _

_"All right, all right," Sirius said, stepping away._

_Remus smiled at them. "There and back, remember."_

_James nodded. "Yes, we know..."_

_With a last glance at Remus and Harry, the three Disapparated to meet Dumbledore at Order headquarters._

_"Where is he?" Sirius asked, looking around at the seemingly deserted place._

_James shook his head. "This doesn't look right."_

_"He's...not here," Lily concluded, looking to the other two anxiously._

_"_Crucio!"_ The spell hit Sirius, making him fall and start to writhe in pain._

_"Sirius!" James and Lily shouted at the same time. Looking up from where Sirius was, they saw a group of Death Eaters surround them._

_"Clever trap, isn't it?" From the back of the group, Voldemort made his way to the front, that same smirk still gracing his face._

_Voldemort jerked his wand back, causing the spell to lift from Sirius. Sirius painfully made his way to stand up, stopping to catch his breath on his knees._

_"Thinking you can escape me those two times. Well, today you will not escape," Voldemort sneered, raising his wand once again, "_Avada-"

_"_Expelliarmus_!" James interrupted the spell, making Voldemort's wand fall from his hands._

_For a minute, James, Lily, and Sirius thought that they got the upper hand. But, instead, a Death Eater grabbed Voldemort's wand and returned it._

_"No," Lily groaned with wide eyes._

_Sirius stood up shakily, holding up his wand. "_W00000_!" Voldemort hissed as the curse hit him, but it didn't have much effect._

_"Let's end this now," Voldemort decided. "_Avada kedavra_!"_

_The curse was dodged and Lily immediately responded with her own. "_Defendo_!" As the curse hit the group of Death Eaters and Voldemort, Lily took this time to grab James and Sirius and Disapparate._

_James looked at Lily as soon as they were safe again outside their house. "We can't keep running away, Lily! We've got to try something at least," James said to her._

_Lily shook her head violently. "No, James, we can't just face him without a plan. We have a _child_, James. What would happen if something happened to us?"_

_Sirius nodded. "Lily's right. Now that you have Harry, you two can't put your lives in jeopardy."_

_James sighed. "I know. You're right." _

_Lily then found herself lost in her husband's embrace._

* * *

_"Come on, Harry, say 'quidditch'!" James urged his one year old son._

_Lily watched amusedly. "Quidditch is too difficult a word, James."_

_James just sent Lily a grin. "You just watch." Once again, James turned his attention back to his son who sat across from him on the floor. "Quuuiiidiitchhh..." he dragged out the word._

_Harry blinked, slightly tilting his head._

_Lily laughed. "See, our son already knows you're insane."_

_James huffed. "He's thinking about it!" he defended himself._

_Harry, instead, grabbed the nearest toy and hit it against the floor. "Toy!" he said, looking up at his parents with bright eyes._

_"Yes, Harry, toy!" Lily smiled and looked over at James to see him pout. "Oh, you, stop being such a downer."_

_"I'm not when I look at you," James exclaimed with a knowing grin._

_Lily shook her head. "Stop trying to be charming," she chastised him._

_James, ignoring Lily's words, leaned forward and kissed her softly. "I love you," he whispered._

_"I love you too," Lily responded sincerely._

_James looked down at Harry, picking him up and setting him down in his lap. "And I love you, Harry." _

_"We both do," Lily added, smiling at the little boy._

_That was the last night they would spend together._

There was an uncomfortable silence that followed.

"They cared for you, they really did, Harry," Remus explained softly, looking up.

I looked over at Harry to see him take a deep breath. "I know..." he whispered, refusing to look up from the floor.

Hermione placed a comforting hand on Harry's arm. "And now you know how much," she said to him.

Harry nodded. "Thanks for finally telling us," he said to Remus and Sirius.

"Yeah, thanks," I added with a thankful smile.

Mrs. Weasley came in and looked around. We all looked at her and waited for her to say something. Finally, Mrs. Weasley said loudly, "Go get packed! Everyone!"

I vaguely smiled at the change of mood as everyone scrambled to get up and went to start packing.

* * *

I smiled to myself as I looked down at the big black dog that walked beside me, following my every move. He must have taken my mother's advice to heart. Ever since yesterday, he began keeping more of a watchful eye on me. I welcomed it; it was the comfort I had been looking for.

As soon as we got to the station, Sirius exclaimed that he wanted to talk to Harry first. I didn't mind this and stood back, waiting with the rest of the gang.

It was awkward – standing there. I looked around at my surroundings, meeting no one's eyes as they all bustled away to whatever preoccupied them.

It wasn't until the shouts of "Dean! Seamus!" from Ron did I finally break out of my reverie.

Looking over at where Ron was, I saw him greeting two boys. One was a very tall dark-skinned boy and the other was shorter with sandy hair.

They eyed me and I decided to overcome the awkwardness of the situation. "Hello, I'm Adrienne Hatcher," I announced with a smile.

Both boys glanced at each other first before the sandy-haired one held out his hand for me to shake. "Seamus Finnigan."

I shook his hand as the other one held out his held. "Dean Thomas."

While shaking Dean's hand, Seamus spoke up. "Do you go to Hogwarts? I haven't seen you around."

"Oh, well, I transferred from America. My father lives here so-"

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Who's your father?"

Sirius's story of being an escaped convict flashed through my mind. I had to stop myself from grinning. "Oh, Sirius Black, do you know him?"

The reaction was priceless. Seamus's eyes grew wide while Dean's eyebrows shot up.

I chuckled and saw Harry walking toward the group. Knowing that was my cue to leave, I quickly said, "Well, I've got to go. Nice you meet you both!" Before I was even finished with my last word, I had left.

Harry gave me a strange look as I hurried past him but I didn't care. Stopping where Sirius was, I greeted him with a hello.

Sirius greeted me back and immediately went into his speech. "Adrienne, you know about Harry's, well, _adventures_, right?"

I nodded, remembering the stories they had told me.

He looked at me seriously. "Promise me you won't go gallivanting off on them. Okay?"

Biting my tongue to stop myself from arguing, I just nodded again.

Sirius sighed in relief. "Good. I don't want anything to happen to you while you're away."

He almost sounded like a worried parent. For not knowing he had a daughter for almost fifteen years, he sure was getting the hang of this. I, once again, had the feeling it had something to do with my mother's letter. He was watching out for me.

"Nothing will," I assured him with a smile.

Steam came out of the train telling the students it was about to leave. I sighed, wondering what else I could say to Sirius.

He looked just as lost.

"Well, I'd better go. Wouldn't want to get left behind and miss everything," I exclaimed, turning slightly to get on my way.

Sirius immediately brightened. "That reminds me: I'd better hear about you in Gryffindor. Or else I'll just have to send up a Howler."

He said with such a joking manner that I actually grinned. "I'm not sure. I'm really leaning toward those friendly and high-spirited Hufflepuffs."

Sirius laughed. "You are not your mother's child if you get sorted in Hufflepuff."

I only grinned to his statement. "I'll see you Christmas break."

"I'll write," he added.

Awkwardly, he pulled me into sort of a semi-hug. I pulled away and gave him a reassuring smile before heading off to the train.

* * *

Ron and Hermione had left to go to the Prefects meeting. We made our way down the corridor, carrying along our bags, trying to find an empty compartment. I looked around and noticed that people were whispering about Harry as we went along. He ignored them the best he could and we stopped at the end of the corridor to meet up with another boy who seemed to be struggling with his trunk while holding onto a toad.

He looked up briefly and panted, "Hi Harry. Hi Ginny. Everywhere's full...I can't find a seat..."

I realized that I had been standing in the back and he hadn't even noticed me.

Ginny exclaimed he didn't know what he was talking about, peering into the nearest compartment. Someone named "Loony Lovegood" was in there.

After mumbling something about not wanting to disturb anyone, the boy and the rest of us filed into the compartment.

It was only when I sat down did the boy with the toad finally notice me.

He gave me a strange look, and then asked, "Are you friends with Harry?"

I put on my friendly face as I stuck out my hand. "Yes. Adrienne Hatcher."

The toad tried to escape and the boy held him back. "Neville Longbottom. And this here is Trevor."

Luna (not Loony, I soon realized) Lovegood immediately went into a discussion on some magazine named The Quibbler. She wasn't a bad person at all. She was a little crazy – but it made her interesting. I had to hold back a smile at everything she said.

After some conversation, Neville brought out something he received for birthday, areally strange looking plant. I instinctively backed away a little.

My instincts were right.

Less than a minute later, Neville poked the plant and the whole compartment was covered in whatever the plant had sprayed over us. I winced and made a face as the goo started to drip off of my head.

Neville immediately started to stammer an apology.

But my attention was interrupted by the compartment door sliding open.

The girl who looked in was pretty, with long shiny black hair. The way Harry started I was absolutely sure he liked her.

She looked at him as if he were some alien creature.

He needed some help.

The girl in the door blinked once and her expression changed. She then said, brightly, "Oh, sorry, I thought I saw – anyway, hi, Harry. How are you?"

The rest of the people in the compartment exchanged surprised looks. Harry chose his words carefully. "Just fine, I guess. How are you?"

The girl smiled at him. "Great. I'll see you around, okay?" She left him with a look and a swish of her hair.

Harry took his eyes off the door and looked around at us. The Stinksap, as Neville called it, dripping from off his glasses. "Uh – what just happened?"

Everyone looked as about as confused as he did. "We're all covered in Stinksap," Ginny exclaimed. "How come she acted as if she couldn't see it?"

"She couldn't," I spoke up softly.

Harry blinked at me. "What?" he asked, clearly confused.

I looked up at all their faces. "She couldn't see it," I admitted, realizing that I had probably done a bad thing.

* * *

CLIFFY!

The next chapter will only be under the category of OC. Because I don't want you all to know who she ends up with. You will never be able to guess.

Review? Please? Thanks!


	7. Special

Once again, I'm procrastinating a paper. But it's okay, since the paper is on BBC's Robin Hood. Anyway, here's the next chapter of ATTWN. I had a change the plot around a bit but it's okay. It will get a bit darker though.

* * *

"What do you mean she couldn't see it?" Ginny questioned, after saying a charm to make the Stinksap vanish. "It was right here in front of her face!"

I frowned and looked down, refusing to meet their eyes. "It's nothing, really. Can we just go back to our conversation?"

"_This_ is what we're talking about," Harry argued, leaning forward. "You did _something_."

I could barely breathe, feeling suffocated. "I-it's no big deal. It's not worth getting working up over."

"But what was it?" Neville asked curiously.

I bit my lip to stop myself from screaming and said, as calmly as I could, "It's not _anything_. Just forget it ever happened because it won't happen again."

Luna stared at me with big eyes. "I think I know."

Shrinking back a little, I finally found my voice to ask, worriedly, "You do?"

Luna nodded dramatically. "Glorygems. You have one, don't you?"

I blinked once and the worry diminished. "Uh...no, I don't think so..."

Patting my hand lightly, she nodded. "It's okay if you do. I won't tell anybody."

"Uh-" I couldn't find anything to say to that so I just looked at her and fell silent.

Luna smiled broadly at everyone while Harry, Ginny and Neville stared at me, still trying to figure out exactly what had happened. I refused to make another sound and the compartment was filled with silence for a while.

Finally, as we were finishing our snacks from the trolley cart, the compartment door slid open and Ron and Hermione walked in.

"I'm starving," Ron said as he grabbed a chocolate frog from Harry.

Hermione and Ron immediately went into naming all the people that were made prefects. I fidgeted nervously, realizing that I wouldn't know anyone except the people sitting with me and the other Weasleys.

"Hey, Hermione," Ginny suddenly spoke up. Hermione looked over at her questioningly. "Let's just say you're sitting here, when suddenly, something awful happens. And then when someone opens the door from outside to say hi, they can't see the awful thing. What do you think could have happened?"

I inwardly groaned at Ginny's obvious question. They were never going to let this go.

Hermione thought about it for a second and then answered, matter-of-factly, "It sounds like an illusion."

Oh, god.

"Why do you ask?" Hermione asked nonchalantly.

Harry hesitated and then said, "Well, Neville's plant just attacked us-"

"I said I was sorry!" Neville cut in.

"And...well, Cho came in. But she couldn't see the stinksap we were covered in," Harry continued and then gestured at me. "Adrienne did something."

The realization passed over Hermione's face. Immediately, the dread and worry came back. She knew. She had to know.

With wide eyes, Hermione leaned forward excitedly and said to me, "You're a _Fabricasensusformator_?"

I just stared back at her. "What?"

"Oh, sorry, I'm rambling now. You're a Fabrica Sensus Formator?"

Luckily, Ron interrupted with "A what-y what what what?"

Hermione glared at Ron for a mere second, and then turned back to me.

"Uh – what is that?" I tried. Of course, I knew it wasn't going to work. It had to be the worse lie I've ever tried to tell.

"You _are_ one," Hermione concluded.

I quickly took a look at everyone around me. They all stared at Hermione and I, oblivious to what was going on. I didn't know what to say. So I said what came to my mind first. "Maybe?" I said as a question.

Hermione's mouth dropped open. "Who taught you?"

"Wait, wait, wait-" Ron interrupted us, waving his hands frantically. "Can you please explain to the rest of us what exactly a...whatever they Hermione said is?"

Without any hesitation, Hermione went into explaining, not even giving me a chance to open my mouth. "Well, they can create illusions, of course, and cause other people to see, hear, feel, and even smell things that aren't really there."

There was a long silence that made me begin to breathe erratically in fear.

"That's bloody amazing," Ron finally breathed excitedly and I let out a breath in relief. "Can you like, make people live out their dreams? Like-"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "She's not going to help you finally become Quidditch captain, Ron." Ron just huffed and sat back. Hermione, on the other hand, went on. "So, who taught you?"

Seeing no way out of this, I finally answered, "April. She was one of my mom's friends."

As if knowing, without looking, that everyone was giving us blank stares. "You are not born a Fabrica Sensus Formator," Hermione again went into an explanation, "You are taught by another. And only some people can be taught, some can't. Not everyone can become one."

"Why didn't you want to tell us?" Harry suddenly asked.

I sighed, shrugging slightly. "My mom told me to only use it in extreme cases. It's just – people usually want me to use it all the time. And I don't want to."

Harry nodded in response. Ron continued to look dejected and Ginny listened attentively while Hermione continued to talk to me about the illusions. Luna went back to reading her magazine but I could tell she was also listening, as was Neville.

Halfway through the conversation, something was said about Ron and the Yule Ball or something. I just ignored it the best I could.

It wasn't until Harry got a hold of Luna's magazine did I see something that interested me: a headline with Sirius's name.

Harry must have saw it too, because he flipped to that page. The huge black headline stood out: SIRIUS – BLACK AS HE'S PAINTED? I tried to read it upside down. Something about...a singing...sensation? Leaning over curiously, I continued to read.

The article was interesting, to say the least. It contained the information that Sirius was actually Stubby Boardman. Glancing toward Harry, I caught his gaze that said 'this is a joke'. Nodding slightly, I stopped reading there.

The compartment door opening again caught my attention.

I looked over to see three guys in the door. One, in the front, had white blonde hair and a pale face. The two guys in the back were both heavyset and looked around with scowls on their faces.

Harry seemed a bit defensive, growling a "what" at the boy before he even said anything.

The boy in front drawled, "Manners, Potter, or I'll have to give you detention." I noticed his Prefect badge as he started to boast about becoming one.

It was after this when the boy glanced at me. "And who are you?" he asked, with a rude sneer.

I paused, frowning at him. "Adrienne Hatcher." I contemplated on whether or not to add "nice to meet you" and then decided not to even care.

"Draco Malfoy," he introduced himself with an air of confidence. "How do you know this...sort?"

I could see why Harry didn't like him. "They're my friends," I said with a definite tone.

Malfoy stared at me, and then turned back to Harry. "Oh, and just watch yourself, Potter, because I'll be _dogging_ your footsteps in case you step out of line."

He left with another sneer, shutting the door behind him. Both Hermione and I looked at Harry as soon as he left. We were thinking the same thing.

That Malfoy character couldn't have used the word 'dogging' causally. Did he know about Sirius? Was he going to tell someone that my father was walking the streets of London?

Ron huffed, sitting back while forcefully biting the head off a chocolate frog. "And just think, you're related to that," he announced, waving the headless frog in my direction.

"What?" I asked, disbelief crossing my face.

Harry nodded solemnly. "Cousins, twice removed, I believe."

I groaned and almost forgot Neville and Luna were in the compartment until I heard the question, "Who in your family is related to him?"

I looked over to see Neville waiting for an answer. "Oh, umm..." He couldn't know, could he? I looked over at the trio for help.

"Oh!" Hermione spoke up suddenly. "Her father is related to the Malfoys. Long story."

Neville blinked, and it must have been efficient, for he nodded.

Luna, however, looked even more excited. "Of course. You're related to the vampires."

I just stared back at her.

It was about half an hour later when I felt the train start to slow down. Hermione warned us all to get changed into our robes, and we hastily got everything together, before the train finally stopped.

Personally, I have never seen a castle that wasn't in a fairytale book or printed in a picture. When I stepped off the train, I stared up at a castle overlooking a black lake. My breath caught in my throat at the marvelous sight. Taking a step forward, I made my way to follow the rest of the students.

"Miss Hatcher."

I stopped suddenly and looked around for the person who had called me. It was someone I recognized from the Order. Mc – something. McGonagall. "Yes?" I responded.

"You'll have to be sorted separately," McGonagall told me, leading me through the doors of the magnificent castle I had been just gawking at seconds earlier.

I opened my mouth to say something but stopped myself, deciding that this was not the time to ask questions.

I vaguely wondered what the rest were conversing about as McGonagall led me into the castle, and stopped me in the Great Hall, which was deserted. I heard a muffled chatter from an adjoining room.

McGonagall didn't waste any time before explaining. "I had debated on whether or not to sort you with the first year students. I believe that you will not be devastated if you're not sorted with them in front of the school."

I immediately nodded.

"Very well. You will be sorted here then."

She calmly walked over to a stool on the right of me and picked up the tattered hat that had been resting there. She motioned for me to sit there, and even though I was confused out of my mind, I took a seat. Only a few seconds later I felt a weight on my head. The hat.

Wait, a hat?

"Ah." I blinked once and realized the hat had spoken in my head. Strange, but I'll admit, I've heard stranger. "Your parents were Gryffindors, were they not?"

I didn't know whether or not to respond so I settled with a mental "yes?" in the form of a question.

"Yes, yes," the hat continued. "You are wise, you are kind, you are clever, and you are courageous. Qualities of each house. However, you will definitely thrive in one house, for I see the miraculous things you have yet to discover about yourself. And you're a Fabrica Sensus Formator. I haven't seen one of those in awhile. Definitely unique, you are. You are most definitely – GRYFFINDOR."

I cringed slightly because of the shouted word, and then smiled slightly, remembering Sirius's words to me.

McGonagall took the hat off, and nodded at me. "Welcome, Ms. Hatcher, to my house. I suppose your friends will tell you the rules. You can go through those doors, around to the Gryffindor table on the far side."

"Thank you," I said to her with a small smile as I made my way to the doors.

I opened them slightly, as to not draw attention, and slipped inside. Thankfully, no one noticed. The room was huge, filled with five tables, four containing students and the other one with teachers. I caught a glimpse of Draco Malfoy at the first table I passed and immediately scowled. At the second table, I saw people wearing the same color of ties as Luna, but I couldn't find her. The next table housed people with black and yellow ties that I knew were Hufflepuffs. And finally, my eyes rested on the familiar faces at the Gryffindor table. Silently, I made my way between the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables and found a spot next to Hermione.

"Hi guys!" I said with a grin.

They stopped their conversation (something about someone who worked for Fudge) and looked over at me.

"Hey," they all greeted me, and Harry continued, "Where did McGonagall take you?"

"She thought it'd be best if I got sorted before the first years. Sorted into Gryffindor, by the way, if you couldn't tell."

Hermione practically beamed. "That means we'll be in the same dorm. I wonder if Dumbledore will do something so it will accommodate us all."

Before another word was said, the doors I came through opened, and a bunch of little first years walked up, waiting to be sorted like I had been.

The hat that had sorted me was sitting on the stool in front of the first years and suddenly, it opened its rim and began to sing.

The song was a bit unnerving. It sang about the founders of the school, friendships between the houses, and then the differences that split them apart. It ended with a fight between the houses and how the hat thought it was wrong to split the students and finally with the warning that Hogwarts was in danger.

The applause was scattered, a bit hesitant, and I found myself looking to everyone around me with raised eyebrows.

"I wonder if it's ever given warnings before?" I heard Hermione ask anxiously.

I turned to look at her as a ghost appeared, and said, while leaning through Neville (as he winced), "Yes, indeed. The hat feels honour-bound to give the school due warning whenever it feels-"

The ghost (whose name I did not know) was cut off as the sorting began. The sorting was slow and tedious, and I found it extremely boring, especially because I did not know a single person. Finally, it ended with Rose Zeller and the Headmaster rose to speak.

I was grateful to see another familiar face; that of Albus Dumbledore, who I had seen many a time in Grimmauld Place.

"To our newcomers," Dumbledore said loudly, arms wide,"Welcome! To our old hands - welcome back! There is a time for speech-making, but this is not it. Tuck in!"

I probably would have been as awed by the food appearing as the first years but this had happened at my old school. Instead, I calmly reached out and grabbed the first plate away from Ron.

Hermione immediately went into asking the ghost about what they were saying before the sorting. I tuned most of it out – I didn't want my first day here to be full of worry and dread.

That's when I noticed the two boys from the train station staring at me from across the table.

I glanced up at them and raised my eyebrow.

They almost looked frightened of me.

"Is it true?" Dean asked me in a hushed whisper, leaning forward slightly.

I gave him a strange look. "What?"

Seamus looked at me with big eyes that could rival Luna's. "That you are a murderer's daughter?"

I almost snorted into my Yorkshire pudding. Biting my lip to stop myself from laughing, I answered with, "You actually believed me?"

The two glanced at each other, obviously relieved.

"We knew it was a joke," Seamus quickly said.

"Definitely," Dean added, and they both hastily went back to their food.

Neville, who noticed, gave me a confused look. I shrugged and decided to not explain any further.

The feast ended and Dumbledore got up to make his speech. He was halfway through talking about the new staff members when a _"hem, hem"_ interrupted. One of the new staff members (Professor Umbridge, was it?) had gotten up and was waiting to say something.

The minute she opened her mouth, I cringed. Her voice was high-pitched and girly, sending a chill down my spine. My eyes widened as she spoke about the Ministry of Magic's new hold on Hogwarts and the changes that would be made. Everyone around me was starting to become restless and began talking even though she was not finished speaking. The speech ended with an unsure smattering of applause and Dumbledore got up once again to speak about Qudditch try-outs.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione began talking about the Ministry's interference in Hogwarts and I contributed to the conversation with the occasional nodding of the head and input.

For some reason, I knew that this year at Hogwarts would be different than the years before.

* * *

Hermione was correct – the dormitory was expanded to add an extra bed. 

I stretched languidly in it the next morning after a restless night of sleep. I was already putting on my tie (a Gryffindor one with the maroon and gold) when the rest of the girls began to wake.

"I'm going to go down to the breakfast early," I told Hermione.

She just nodded her head in response.

I made my way slowly down the staircase into the Common Room and stalled, wondering if I should wait for the others. A slam of the door from the boys dormitories startled me and suddenly, I saw Seamus storm down the steps, obviously avoiding something.

I was just going to step out of the way but the words came tumbling out of my mouth before I could stop them. "What's wrong?"

He stopped and noticed me for the first time, eying me cautiously. "Harry," he finally responded.

I blinked in confusion. "What about him?" I asked innocently.

"He's _mad_," Seamus emphasized.

I frowned. "He is not."

Seamus flopped down on the couch, not even glancing in my direction. "He insulted me family, he believes You-Know-Who is back, and he's _mad_."

I walked around the couch and took a seat in the chair in front of him. "I don't know what he said about your family, but Harry is right about the fact that he _is_ back. Take a look around you Seamus. Can't you see the signs? Even the sorting hat knows. Harry isn't mad, he's just... misunderstood."

Seamus still refused to look at me. "I'm goin' to breakfast," he said suddenly, throwing himself off the couch and hastily making a dramatic exit through the Portrait hole.

I looked up to see the trio looking at me curiously. I just looked back at them and shrugged, deciding that it was a trivial thing to tell them and be the reason for Harry becoming more angsty.

Sighing loudly, I hoped that I wouldn't get in the middle of this.

* * *

After this chapter, Adrienne will _definitely_ be showing her true personality. It's going to great really interesting. And my outline says this story is going to be 25 chapters...yeah, it'll be long.

Oh, and there is also a video to this story on my profile. Go check it out.

Anyway, review please?


	8. Frustration

My profile says why this is so late. Sorry.

I have a poll on my profile about this story. I'm just wondering what people are thinking about it.

Enjoy.

* * *

"What's the matter?" Hermione asked as soon as they caught up with me.

I opened my mouth to answer the question but then noticed the look on Harry's face. "What?" I asked him, a bit taken back.

"You were talking to him," Harry blurted out, anger passing over his face.

I blinked, trying to figure out what Harry meant. "Him? Seamus, you mean?"

"Yes, _Seamus_," Harry said through clenched teeth.

"Well, then, yes, I was talking to him," I confirmed, crossing my arms slowly. "Why?"

Harry was positively seething. "Making friends with the people hate me? Nice, Adrienne. Very nice."

I glared at him. "For your information, I was not 'making friends with him'. I was defending _you_!"  
Harry just looked at me, and I knew he was convinced that I wasn't telling the truth. "I really doubt that you and _he_ were talking about me. Who's side are you on?"

I clenched my fists and took a deep breath. "Your's, Harry, so stop being such an idiot."

"Adrienne wasn't doing anything wrong, Harry," Hermione reasoned. "Stop accusing her."

"She's the one that went to talk to him!" Harry tried to defend himself but I was on the verge of snapping.

"Fine!" I shouted, stepping back. "If you won't believe me, then I don't need to listen to this."

Fuming inside, I went through the portrait hole, slamming it behind me.

I stopped down the corridor when I realized – I had no clue where I was going. Where was the Great Hall? Which staircase do I descend?

"Adrienne?" I quickly turned around to see Neville looking at me strangely. "Where are you going?"

I glanced around at my surroundings briefly (nothing looked familiar) and then looked back at Neville. "Uh, that's a good question."

I watched as Neville pointed the opposite way that I was going. "Great Hall is this way if that's where you're going."

I could only manage a small "oh" in response. I must have looked embarrassed or something because Neville immediately said, "Oh, don't worry. I used to get lost all the time here. You'll get the hang of it."

I gave him a reassuring smile -- but my mind was not on my conversation with him. All I could think about was Harry and Seamus as I wondered what was going to happen.

I glanced down at the Gryffindor table to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione all sitting together. Farther down, Seamus sat across from Dean. I stopped before I approached the table and turned to Neville.

"Thanks for the directions, Neville. I'll see you in class."

Neville nodded, leaving with a farewell as he made his way to sit next to Harry and the others. I made my way down the table and passed them, only sneaking one glance.

Hermione looked up and noticed me, but Harry was too busy ranting to Ron to see. Without even thinking twice, I sat down next to Seamus and Dean and reached for a piece of toast. I only looked up when I started buttering it and then suppressed a chuckle at their confused expressions.

"What?" I asked, trying my best to look equally as confused.

"Why are you sitting here?" Seamus asked, staring at me strangely.

I shrugged. "I can sit wherever I want to, right?"

Dean nodded his head slowly. "Yeah, but --" He trailed off, and Seamus finished on to his statement.

"You're friends with Harry," he said simply.

I shrugged once again and took a bite of my toast.

They continued to stare at me as if I were crazy. Luckily, McGonagall broke the awkward silence by passing out schedules. I took mine and glanced at it while I took a sip of my juice.

History – not my best subject. Especially if the professor droned on and on. Potions – all I could remember was that one of the members of the Order taught it. It couldn't be that bad. Divination – a class where I made up a lot of things, so it was okay. And Defense Against the Dark Arts. I didn't know much about the woman that taught it – but I guess no one did.

Briefly looking up, I could tell that Dean and Seamus were trying to disguise the fact they were still staring at me.

"Why is it so strange that I sat here?" I asked them sharply.

I didn't get an answer; instead, Dean nudged Seamus, and then Seamus gave Dean an annoyed look, and finally they looked over at me cautiously.

It looked as if they were going to say something, but we were interrupted by a loud voice. "Want any toast?" And a stack of toast was thrust in front of my face.

I turned around to see Fred and George with grins on their faces and toast in their hands. "No thanks," I answered, raising an eyebrow at them. "What are you two doing?"

The twin on the left took a bite of his food. "We're just going to try to sell some Extendable Ears before Herbology."

The other spoke up. "What are you doing, sitting all the way down here?"

I rolled my eyes, glancing down the table. "Harry got into an argument with one of his roommates and somehow I got caught up in the middle of it."

"Mood swings," the first twin said as seriously as he could.

"Tragic," the other added.

"He'll get over it." And with a short farewell, they left as quickly as they came.

I turned back toward the table as Seamus said, "But you didn't do anything."

"And now you know why I'm sitting down here," I concluded, finishing my breakfast and standing up to leave.

The two boys continued to stare at me. "You have no clue where you're going, do you?"

It started to annoy me that no one thought I could find my own way. "Follow the Gryffindors in our year. It's not that hard."

Hermione was the only one that noticed me pass by. She weakly smiled at me and I waved at her in response. Harry and Ron didn't even notice.

Following one of the girls in my dorm (whose name I just couldn't remember – maybe it started with a L), I finally walked into the classroom.

We had to listen to an hour and a half of droning about giant wars by a ghost teacher. I immediately knew History of Magic wouldn't be my best class. Hermione sat next to me, frantically taking notes, while Ron and Harry sat on her other side playing Hangman. I zoned out.

I followed the trio to our next class, Potions. On the way, I saw Cho walking toward Harry. I couldn't hear their conversation and felt a pang of regret that I had fought with Harry this morning.

This was getting ridiculous.

Hopefully, Potions would raise my spirits. I was actually pretty good at the subject. Following the directions carefully always ensured me a good grade in the class.

The room was in the dungeons and had a slight ominous feel to it. Suddenly, I wasn't as excited for this lesson.

Immediate silence fell upon the classroom once the door behind us closed. "Settle down," I heard a cold voice break the silence.

A man who I had only seen a couple times during the summer came to the front of the room. I watched him as he began to explain the OWLS at the end of the year. I could have sworn he looked at Harry when he said some would fail their OWLS. Harry glared back. A shiver went down my spine as I realized this class might not be all I thought it would be.

We were to make the Draught of Peace in only an hour and a half. Hermione seemed ready to go; she was at the ingredients cabinet before anybody else. I took everything at a steady pace to make sure I wouldn't mess up. I didn't want to make a bad impression on my first day.

It was coming along smoothly. A silver vapor started rising from my potion when Hermione's did so I knew I was on the right track.

The professor was walking around glancing into our cauldrons. For the life of me, I couldn't even remember his name – even if he was in the Order.

I turned to see how everyone was doing and found them in bad shape. I even took pity on Seamus, lighting the fire that had gone out under his cauldron. He murmured a thanks in return.

The professor stopped at Harry's cauldron and looked down at it in disgust. Even though I was mad at Harry, I felt bad as the professor pointed out Harry's mistake and vanished the potion that Harry had spent the whole lesson working on.

He then stopped at my cauldron and looked up at me. "Adrienne Hatcher, is it?"

I nodded and replied, "Yes, sir."

There was a pause as he stared back down into my cauldron. "Can you tell me the color of the vapor rising from your potion?"

"Silver?" I supplied.

The professor's lips curved into a smirk. "Exactly. Next time, Miss Hatcher, pay more attention to the directions. Your vapor color should be a light silver." I watched as he vanished my potion too.

I didn't even hear what he said to the class. Everything he had just said to me kept repeating in my mind, over and over. Even though I looked positively calm on the outside, inside, I was seething.

"That was really unfair," Hermione said as I walked by the table.

I didn't even have the effort to go sit somewhere else. I threw myself down next to her, causing Harry and Ron to look up at me.

"Both of your potions were better than most of the class. Adrienne had one of the best!" Hermione continued.

"He simply cannot do that!" I growled, stabbing a piece of meat as hard as I could.

Ron looked a bit afraid of me. However, Harry quickly countered with, "Yeah, and when has Snape ever been fair to me?"

I looked up at him, the anger in my eyes softening a bit. "You mean he does this to you all the time?"

Harry sighed, going back to his food as he explained, "Practically every day. And now he's treating you the same."

What did he have against me? "But why?" I asked, looking between the three to see if they had an answer.

"He never liked my father and he doesn't get along with Sirius," Harry said, and then paused, thinking his explanation through. "That may be a bit of an understatement."

"I did think he might be a bit better this year," Hermione said softly, interrupting us. "I mean, you know, now that's he's in the Order and everything."

Ron snorted and began the usual routine of telling Hermione she was wrong. I just decided to watch wearily as it went back and forth about whether or not Dumbledore was right letting Snape into the Order.

"Oh, shut up, the pair of you," Harry's voice came suddenly. Startled, I looked up at him with a surprised look on my face. "Can't you give it a rest? You're always having a go at each other, it's driving me mad."

Ron and Hermione looked completely surprised as Harry got up from the table and left without another word.

Maybe Divination class would help raise everyone's spirits.

* * *

Professor Trelawney, an absolutely crazy lady at my first impression, told us we would have to work in pairs for dream interpretation.

It would have been fine if Hermione was in the class. But, she wasn't, and Harry and Ron had already paired up, along with the only other people I knew – the girls in my dormitory and Dean and Neville.

It was then I noticed that Seamus didn't have anyone to work with. And he was the only other one who didn't have a partner yet.

Oh, god, Harry would _kill_ me.

"Hey," Seamus greeted before I could make up my mind on what to do. "Uh – I see you haven't anyone to work with – and..."

I would never be forgiven if I worked with him. I would be _killed_. Exiled. Banished. Forever.

I blinked, and then realized I was _really_ overreacting. After all, what else was I to do? Refuse to work and be kicked out of class? It was only one little class assignment.

"Okay," I found myself saying.

Maybe if we hadn't had the table right next to Harry and Ron, it would've been okay. But, unfortunately, we were seated about a meter away from them.

If I immersed myself in the work –

"Any good dreams lately?" I asked Seamus, opening my book and flipping through the pages absentmindedly.

"I had one two nights ago where me mum made me a plate of bacon..." Seamus trailed off into silence. I looked up, waiting for him to say something else. "That sounded really stupid."

I shrugged, propping myself on my elbow and then flipped another page in my book. "It says here food in general symbolizes hunger. Very insightful." I looked up at him briefly and saw him actually grin at my words.

And then I did something I never should have done. Ever.

I chuckled in return, a small smile appearing on my face. And, of course, at that exact moment, Harry would look over and see. And I was officially dead.

Harry and Ron left Trelawney's classroom before I even got up-from my seat. I sighed loudly, grabbing my bag and making my way to the door.

"Hey, do you want some company on the way down to our next class?" A feeling of sickness washed over me, as I turned around to face Seamus once again.

"Why?" I asked, surprised that I had opened my mouth without getting sick.

He shrugged. "Just wondering."

"Um, no thanks. I'm meeting with Hermione. But, thanks for the offer, Seamus." I gave him a small smile and hurried down the staircase. I wasn't lying completely to him – I really did need to talk to Hermione.

I hurried down the steps and met up with Hermione in a corridor on the way. She turned to acknowledge me, and then did a double take when she saw my face. "What happened?"

"One guess."

Hermione didn't even hesitate to answer. "Harry."

"Yeah, I had to work with Seamus during Divination."

"Ah," Hermione supplied, leaving it there.

I didn't even feel like going to Defense. I felt like hiding in the dormitories and never leaving again. "I didn't even do anything," I began to complain. "What was I _supposed_ to do? I'm just stuck in the middle!"

Hermione kept quiet, listening to me rant all the way to class.

* * *

Professor Umbridge is a crazy woman, to be frank.

When I first saw her, I thought she was a crazy woman. And when I left the classroom, I still thought she was a crazy woman.

Hermione even agreed. _Hermione_. And she doesn't seem the type to cross a teacher.

Defense Against the Dark Arts is supposed to teach students through examples and practice. Instead, we were being forced to read a book and learn everything from words and pictures. Professor Umbridge claimed that the Ministry was changing the rules.

She's absolutely _anal_ too. Forcing each person to raise their hand to speak in class. Harry, unfortunately, kept interrupting her without raising his hand. Dean too. And then Hermione started.

Soon, it became a full out _brawl_ between the students and the professor.

Suddenly, I was thrown into the argument. After Parvati talked about the practical part of the class, I blurted out, "We cannot go out into the real world without knowing how to use the spells!"

Professor Umbridge then took a second to glare at me. "Name?"

"Adrienne Hatcher," I answered without a beat. "And I think-"

"This is _school_. Not the real world," Professor Umbridge cut me off.

Harry once again spoke up, catching me offguard and making me flinch. "Oh yeah?"

Professor Umbridge said, in a sickly sweet voice, "Who do you imagine wants to attack children like yourselves?"

"Hmm, let's think...maybe Lord Voldemort?"

My mind went back to that night where my mom and I had met up with him on the way to Grimmauld Place. My heart skipped a beat as I watched the professor with a hard stare.

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter."

I couldn't breathe. The air was too hot and my throat was closing up.

Professor Umbridge didn't even hesitate to give Harry a detention and send him away to Professor McGongall. I watched him leave with wide eyes, willing myself not to scream.

My first day was definitely not what I thought it was going to be.

Ron nervously tried to get away from me as soon as class had ended. Hermione stopped him by standing in front of him and turning him back around to face me.

"What was I supposed to do?" I asked him, crossing my arms.

He refused to meet my eyes. "You seemed to be having a great time with him and with Harry's temper nowadays...he thinks you're going with Seamus."

I scoffed. "What - why?"

Hermione started walking down to the Great Hall and we began to walk next to her.

Ron shrugged. "Because you fancy him?"

I stopped dead. "No, I don't," I said, giving him a strange look.

He only shrugged once again. "Well, he sure fancies you."

I glared at Ron, but, for once, I couldn't find a single word to say. What could I do? What could I say? How would I stay friends with Harry, Ron, and Hermione if Seamus kept getting in the way?

The only thing I knew was that this was not going to turn out well.

* * *

It's unknown when the next chapter will be out. I will try, but I'm on a semi-hiatus right now... 


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